One of the most prominent figures in Valorant, Cloud9 pro player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo has announced that he will be taking a break from the competitive scene.
Through the organization’s announcement on Twitter, it has been revealed that he wished to pursue content creation for the time being.
The announcement comes as a shock to the Valorant community as it came right after Riot’s release of the schedule for the upcoming Challengers competition for the 2021 Champions Tour.
Cloud9 was one of the teams in North America that had a legitimate shot at defeating First Strike NA champions 100 Thieves. However, now that TenZ is out of the picture, Cloud9’s tournament chances drop dramatically.
TenZ has, likewise, released his own statement regarding the decision. “During this time while I am off the team,” he wrote, “I will be dedicating it towards my personal stream/YouTube to produce some more content.” He concluded on a somewhat hopeful note, adding that he would return to competitive play when he sees the time is right.
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TenZ’s involvement in pro Valorant may have been short, but he will be fondly remembered as one of the best in the game. Previously, when Riot Games’ competitive first-person shooter was in its beta stage, he was the first-ever player to reach the Valorant rank, which has since been renamed Radiant. Before that, TenZ was also a renowned Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, before he retired in April 2020 to pursue his career in Valorant.
Effectively, TenZ has been a Valorant pro for only nine months. But he was already considered one of the best players in the professional scene, as a Jett main who was often seen carrying Cloud9 in North American tournaments.
TenZ is also known within the Valorant community as a figure who shares different and unorthodox ways to play the game. He has been an advocate of the ‘run-and-gun’ strategy, which caused many players and even pros to give it a try. Fans can only imagine how many players were titled because of this.
For now, fans can check out TenZ on his official Twitch and YouTube channels. They can watch him play against the top players on the North American servers as he tries to expand his Valorant credentials in Episode 2 Act I’s newly added leaderboard system.
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