Valorant has been super-viral since release. Initially making headlines for streamer’s ability to exploit Twitch drops. Now it seems the hybrid Overwatch/CS: GO title Valorant is attracting even the biggest Overwatch league talent to jump ship.
He came, he saw and he conquered.
Thank you and best of luck in your future endeavors @Sinatraa???? pic.twitter.com/XCyWSzN4UV
— San Francisco Shock (@SFShock) April 28, 2020
Most recently Jay “Sinatraa” Won who landed the Overwatch League MVP in 2019 while leading the San Francisco Shock to a championship title. He made the announcement he was joining the Sentinels a Valorant team on April 28th shortly after retiring from the OWL. He summarized his departure in a TwitLonger post while also sending personal messages to all his teammates.
straight up just lost passion for the game. idk what the real killer was for me but maybe it was 2-2-2 lock maybe it was bans im not sure… i just know it was hard for me to log on to play and i didnt have fun in scrims/ranked at all anymore. i did not make this decision in 1 day it took a full month of non stop thinking every day and sleepless nights from being so stressed. it fucking sucked but ultimately i wanted to do whats right for me. i wanna thank NRG/SHOCK and OWL for giving me a chance and making my dreams come true. (shoutout andy, brett, jaime <3) last thing, i just wanna say sorry to all my fans, fans of OWL, and everyone on shock. in the past month i did not give OW/OWL my all and it showed in scrims and even in OWL so im sorry. -Sinatraa
Other notable players joining the Sentinels are Apex Legends pro Jared “Zombs” Gitlin, Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan, Hunter “SicK” Mims. It’s stacking up to be a great roster but the team is still looking for a fifth.
Time to write the next chapter.
We are excited to announce details about our Valorant team consisting of @sinatraa, @ShahZaMk, @zombs and @SicK_cs.
????: https://t.co/sQ6hDFtvtZ pic.twitter.com/wsxlXCOqF7
— Sentinels (@Sentinels) April 29, 2020
In lieu of mistakes made by game developer Blizzard, departing players, and even the casting desk leaving it seems the situation could be more serious than initially thought. Losing the face of the league will most definitely result in more players parting ways with OWL. Valorant is an uncharted universe with a brand new scene just beginning to assemble the building blocks of Esports. It can be an attractive destination for players who are losing passion in the big over-saturated triple-A leagues and looking for a fresh start. We expect to see more departures soon stay tuned.
