The North American Cloud9 announced that Tyson “TenZ” Ngo who formerly played for the organization’s CS:GO roster will now be their first Valorant pro player.
The upcoming shooter Valorant is making even bigger steps into the world of esports as organizations from around the world start to gather teams. Riot’s shooter is still a couple months away from its official release and only a week into the closed beta, but that doesn’t stop pro players from making career choices.
It was the South Korean T1 who made the bold move of signing the first-ever Valorant pro player - Braxton “swag” Pearce who is now known as Brax. Pearce is a former CS:GO player who got banned years ago due to a match-fixing scandal. With no possibility of ever competing in a Valve CS:GO Major the choice for him was a natural one.
- READ MORE: T1 make swag the first Valorant pro player
With Cloud9 and TenZ the situation is different. TenZ played for C9’s CS:GO for a few months, before getting benched and going inactive. The playver eventually turned into a streamer for the organization and hasn’t had a taste of high-level Counter-Strike in some time. Valorant promises a lot so far, and Riot Games will no doubt do their best to deliver. The announcement by Cloud9 came on their social media channels.
It was only a matter of time until we had our first @PlayVALORANT player...Find out who it is in our latest video! https://t.co/jJxgwYxKVp pic.twitter.com/VK8JLc2Hrc
— Cloud9 (@Cloud9) April 12, 2020
In the video, TenZ explains his motivation behind the decision by pointing out that Valorant has been quite fun in the closed beta. That’s not usually something we hear often as it’s more of a requirement. Almost all pro players actually enjoy the games they play. As expected, the player’s fanbase is divided with half saying he’ll do great in Valorant while others think it might be a bad choice since the game isn’t even out yet.
A risky move?
There is still no clear idea about the potential competitive future of the tactical shooter. Valorant is currently in closed beta and while the release is scheduled for this summer, this could easily get postponed due to the global pandemic and all. Furthermore, Riot haven’t shown a roadmap for the game’s esports scene so it’s all really a leap of faith. The system might not be what some players and organizations are looking for when it comes to qualifying, funding, rules and so on. We only know that Riot Games will try to cater to what the community wants to see.
On the bright side, Valorant already has two tournaments coming up. One today, organized by 100 Thieves and another one later this week by T1.
