Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo’s retirement despatched shockwaves via the Valorant esports group as one in every of its brightest stars selected to hold up his mouse and keyboard. This retirement story isn’t distinctive to the previous Sentinels participant, and he has many blueprints to observe.
TenZ joined the lineage of esports professionals closing the door on their aggressive profession to pursue content material creation on September 14.
The Masters Reykjavík and Madrid winner stated he was uninterested in the grind required to compete on the highest stage and wished to discover what he may do as a streamer and creator with out the trouble of follow and match play.
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TenZ additionally stated he has all the time wished to be a streamer and content material creator, and that changing into an esports professional was a pure development from broadcast video games.
TenZ has two worldwide trophies to his identify.
“I believe skilled play form of simply got here at me as a result of I grinded the sport a lot. I put a lot effort in and I used to be capable of get ok to be known as a professional-level expertise,” he stated in his retirement announcement.
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His reasoning isn’t a lot totally different from Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek, who retired from Counter-Strike in 2018 to deal with streaming.
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“There isn’t a rule ebook for methods to grow to be knowledgeable online game participant. You don’t develop up planning for it, and even realizing it’s an choice… And you then get up, someday, and also you’re attempting to determine methods to write a retirement assertion,” shroud stated in his announcement put up.
TenZ additionally retired on the similar age of 23.
Nevertheless, TenZ’s retirement is a extra high-profile transfer in comparison with gamers who’ve made the transition earlier than him.
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TenZ is totally different from shroud and his contemporaries in key methods
In contrast to shroud, Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, or Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, TenZ was the face of his esport. He was the primary skilled Valorant participant, making the leap whereas on C9’s CS:GO bench, and he received the primary main worldwide Valorant occasion in 2021.
The Canadian was all the time swarmed with requests to swap jerseys and play with different professionals at occasions, and lots of present prime gamers say TenZ is their idol, the explanation they began their skilled journey.
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Different retired esports professionals that at the moment are the face of streaming like shroud and xQc all had huge followings earlier than chucking up the sponge on aggressive gaming, that’s how they had been capable of make the leap into content material creation.
However they weren’t the face of the sport.
None of his contemporaries can match up by way of the impression that their profession, not to mention retirement, will depart on Valorant or esports.
Nevertheless, TenZ nonetheless owes his transition to the numerous who set the blueprint earlier than him and their journey’s post-esports may inform how the subsequent step in his profession will unfold.
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TenZ’s post-esports blueprint
The closest comparability to TenZ is shroud, as the 2 Canadians garnered an enormous following with Cloud9, and retired on the similar age for largely the identical causes.
Put up-retirement, and arguably throughout his ultimate months as a professional, shroud performed principally video games not known as Counter-Strike. Like many different streamers, he hopped to the preferred titles of the month however saved to his roots by generally prioritizing FPS video games.
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TenZ has stated he’s principally sticking to Valorant for his streams, however don’t be stunned if he switches to Impasse or different standard titles for a time as an alternative.
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Sentinels Twittershroud has a historical past as one of many sharpest aimers with a mouse in-hand.
A return to esports can be not out of the query, and TenZ has expressed a willingness to go well with again up if wanted for Sentinels. Retired professionals with massive followings have returned to aggressive gaming for brief stints up to now.
The newest instance is shroud, who stepped in as primarily an emergency sub to carry some hype again for the Sentinels model after a disastrous 2022 season. One other instance is the Delta Fox Challengers crew which consisted solely of retired League of Legends professionals with massive followings on Twitch.
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Nevertheless, growth exterior the sport they went professional in has been the precedence for a lot of former esports gamers, and TenZ shouldn’t be that totally different. He can attempt to be one of many faces of a brand new title, very like what tarik has finished with Valorant, or increase into totally different areas of content material like IRL streaming.
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In contrast to tarik and shroud, nevertheless, TenZ appears excited to get out on the earth and check out totally different avenues of content material. Whereas each tarik and shroud appear content material to sit down at dwelling and grind video games to their huge audiences, TenZ stated in his retirement video that he needs to journey and attend occasions he couldn’t find time for as a professional.
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This places him extra within the realm of xQc, who has massively outgrown his Overwatch roots.
The blueprint for a choose few former professionals appears to be to outgrow the esport you got here from. Whether or not TenZ can or will do that is still to be seen. Both manner, it’d be no shock if he was set for all times off the again of his legendary Valorant profession, and he’ll be sorely missed within the professional scene.
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As for the Valorant professional scene, although? TenZ is leaving an enormous void for the area as a participant everybody seemed as much as. Whereas this can be a little scary for the way forward for the esport in some methods, it additionally leaves loads of room for a brand new prodigy to step in and make a reputation for themselves because the face of the esport.
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