Sentinels analyst Drew “DrewSpark” Spark-Whitworth says that a video uploaded by Josh “Sideshow” Wilkinson critiquing a member of his team “wasn’t anything new to us.”
Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, a stud VALORANT player for Sentinels, has taken more than his fair share of critique over the years. From an underwhelming performance in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for Cloud9, to tearing up the VALORANT scene for Sentinels, to falling off substantially, there isn’t much he hasn’t heard about his play. Sideshow, a former Overwatch League caster and a current VALORANT analyst had a meaty critique of TenZ’s play, highlighting several key areas in which he was individually underperforming.
To his credit, Sideshow’s video was well-made, informative, and well-argued. He also left room for the pain points he highlighted to be known to the coaching staff. DrewSpark responded to a question about the video, stating in part, “I think the majority of the criticism is fair and is presented thoroughly, I’d be interested to see Josh do more of these videos on other players. I will also say that there wasn’t anything new to us in that video AND we have the full context behind some of the specifics.”
With high hopes for their firepower behind a rebuilt roster, Sentinels entered the first year of the quasi-franchised VALORANT Champions Tour with serious expectations. They ultimately failed to live up to the billing, placing seventh in the regular season, bombing out in the first round of the LOCK//IN tournament, and ultimately failing to qualify for Champions. While there’s no doubt they have the closest thing esports can have to a blue-blood pedigree in VALORANT, the team has a ways to go before punching their way to deep international tournament runs in the new era. For what it’s worth, Sentinels are dedicated to TenZ, and have apparently retained him for the 2024 campaign.
