Sentinels Star TenZ Talks VALORANT Masters, KAY/O, Partying with Mango

TenZ is arguably VALORANT's best player following an MVP performance at VALORANT's Stage 2 Masters but he's also one of the game's biggest content creators. This show covers the recent changes in VALORANT, the growing content scene around the game and TenZ's wild few months which took him from a Cloud 9 streamer to a Sentinels pro locked into VALORANT's first World Championship in Fall. The full transcription of this episode is underneath the dotted line. 

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Mitch Reames  
Hello and welcome in to Esports Meta a podcast from Nerd Street gamers. I'm your host Mitch rates. Today's guest really needs no introduction. He was already on the rise as a CSGO player and the release of valerate has elevated the order the game's biggest stars, retiring from Cloud Nine in January 2021. To pursue consecration, he was sent out on loan to sentinels. With sentinels, the team proved itself to be the best in North America at VCT. Stage one masters and the best team in the world at stage two masters Reykjavik, after that when he joined sentinels full time as a contract buyout was completed, and sentinels looks to defend their crown as stage three approaches tense. Welcome to the show.

TenZ  
Thanks for having me.

Mitch Reames  
So I'm definitely going to ask you about the transition from CD to sentinels valorous next act and the release of Keio which actually just happened the day we're recording this, but I heard a story I want to ask you about first and was while I was watching VCT, stage two masters and I was hopping around to a bunch of the CO streams over the week long effect. And one of the CO streams randomly Ludwick was watching with mango, who for people unfamiliar is an all time great, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. And he had a 10 story about YouTube going to casino I think it was in Croatia. And so there's a different drinky gauge over there different gambling age different rules in general over in Croatia. What do you remember from that night hanging and drinking with mango?

TenZ  
So mango invited someone like like the CSGO guys to see if they wanted to go to casino with them. And I don't think anybody else went but I decided to go and I've never been to casino before and I definitely like megos an expert, so I knew I could trust them. I went to the ATM. I tried to pull out like $100 I think but I pulled out like 300 euros accidentally. And then we proceeded to play blackjack. And yeah, I lost like everything within 20 minutes. And then mango kept giving me like 10s and chips where I would gain back like at repay the debt. And that happened like 667 times. Or it was a 20s I don't remember I think he called it like homie. It was either homie Tanner homie 20, I don't remember but where he gives you 20 chips and you repay the debt after you like you make your money back. So it was fun. We got wasted. He carried me back to my hotel room, literally, and threw me onto the bed.

Mitch Reames  
That's an iconic story, honestly. So that's when you know, both part of the C died family at the time. I imagine. So that was the connection there between you two? Yeah. Had you ever? Have you ever talked to him before that?

TenZ  
I'm not really I knew I knew who manga was because actually one of my friends from high school is really like big into smash, and especially the Smash melee. So mango is actually his favorite player. So that's how I kind of like knew about mango before and then I was able to hang out with him in Croatia. So that's pretty cool.

Mitch Reames  
That's such a random story. But it's one that you like think back God you I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah. I've ever by. So I live in Las Vegas. Now the first time that I got here, I was like, Well, I guess I have to go learn how to gamble. And yeah, it's a it's kind of confusing. would you would you start it?

TenZ  
Yeah, for a beginner, you'll definitely suck for the first time.

Mitch Reames  
It's good, good to be part partnered with a true pro and mango. I don't think he would balk at that by any means both, both on the alcohol consumption side and on the gambling. The man does have a part. So switching over to Valerie a little bit obviously you're a part of see nine then you get scientists at Lowe's in some pretty interesting circumstances. It's just a few days before stage one masters. You know, how was that transition from the jump. But I know I've talked to you a little bit after different events like that. But if you think back to that, and just sort of this crazy run up of the last few months where stage one masters falls right into stage two qualifiers before which then leads up to Iceland. Now you've had a few weeks to kind of catch your breath after stage two, stage three coming up in about 10 days or so. You know, can you reflect a little bit on this last period of time now that you've actually had a few weeks where there hasn't been a super high profile competition you've been competing it

TenZ  
yeah so the just like reflecting on everything. It's all crazy like from the first day where I'm I sat down and I wasn't really expecting much I was expecting just kind of stay on the sidelines until whoever knows like whenever the time was calling for me to come back to pro play but getting the message from Shah's on Twitter dm that started everything. We won masters one one masters to one elegy su so it's fantastic and I'm like thankful that I just have such an amazing team behind me.

Mitch Reames  
You all prove to be the best team in the world. And I think you silence the doubters. You know if there was doubters before that a clean sweep of fanatic in the grand finals of stage two bye there's pretty much locked that into place. And you won the MVP award for that series with an absurd 289 average combat score or ACS. How are you feeling during that match? You know, it's the biggest stage Valerie ever had up until this point, and you popped off.

TenZ  
I don't know what it is, I actually feel like I played better in matches. And especially if there's more pressure in the match, I don't really feel the pressure instead of pressure, I kind of feel like adrenaline or like excitement. So I'd say like in the Grand Finals, I was definitely like in the flow state. And just owning with my aim.

Mitch Reames  
It seems like you all were actually really want to talk about your aim and how that's going to be changed in this next validated stage that we have coming up. But it was so interesting, because we don't let ourselves have any time before moving on to the next story. It feels like so after you when that everybody starts immediately talking about your contract, like it comes up in the postgame press conference. People are start, like tweeting about it. It's like within 30 minutes, I was like, Can we enjoy a win before we immediately move on to the next thing. But you know, as that played out, how long after that when suddenly a few days later, it's like, Okay, he's on sentinels, like the buyout happened. He wasn't in contract jail, some people speculated or something like that. How long after that, when did you learn that you were officially becoming a member of sentinels.

TenZ  
So I was actually, like, right after he won the Grand Finals, I'd say like an hour, we were back in like the room or even like 30 minutes, but our manager just says, Hey, guys, we have an announcement, we picked up tons. It's like, Whoa, that's big.

Mitch Reames  
Did that allow you to celebrate a little more free?

TenZ  
Just Yeah, I was definitely able to celebrate both for the win. And for like, just being able to join this team.

Mitch Reames  
And you know, like you with that win. And with the stage win masters when you guys became the first team to qualify for champions. And so at the back of your mind has to be a little bit like, did I qualify to? Or are these four guys going? And I'm still not sure that it was that that play into it at all?

TenZ  
I mean, at the time, I wasn't really thinking about it, I'm sure like if I didn't get picked up, and it was after the tournament, like we took this long period. And just like in a world where I didn't get picked up long term. Yeah, definitely would have been in the back of my mind that like, like, Damn, we qualified for champions, but they're just sad. I can't be a part of that. So it's like, I'm so thankful that I was able to join this team long term.

Mitch Reames  
In the end, everything worked out. Right, you joined the team, and you're allowed to join it right after stage your masters as the contract. Did you have communication with C nine and with jack at the end at this at the time during that? Or was it kind of in the dark? I tell you just got the Hey, okay, you're part of it.

TenZ  
Uh, I was like in the dark a little bit, but I know that

the

TenZ  
that likes animals and Sina and we're communicating and especially like my agent as well. So there's a there's like communication there. It just like I'm the type of person where I don't really need to know what's going on. I just play

Mitch Reames  
fair enough, surround yourself with the right people. And you don't have to worry about that as much because that's their job to figure that stuff out. Well, again, it all worked out and clearly the contract situation it didn't have a negative impact on your forms or or maybe it did you actually have another level of skill that but that would be pretty, pretty shocking even for for you. Going forward, especially as we entered this period of meta change of a big switch, are you able to relax a bit more knowing Hey, there's probably going to be some adjustments we have to make there are going to be some adjustments we have to make. But I'm set in stone with these other four guys and we're going to be able to figure it out. Can you relax a little bit more especially in this period of incoming flux? Then maybe you would have if you're still alone?

TenZ  
Yeah, so definitely like I know for a fact that like all these like all my teammates, so shout dapper sick, like they're all amazing players, they can have my back at times, like I trust them in game 100%. And so yeah, I can I can definitely like relax and have ease of mind knowing that I have like, great, fantastic team misses for me. I'm looking at like the meta changes stuff. I mean, obviously, like, it's very exciting to see a meta, like, constantly adapt. And that's what kind of kind of what interests me in eSports. And especially in other games that I wasn't a part of, like I was in Counter Strike where the meta was pretty much the same for God knows how long and

Mitch Reames  
to log on.

TenZ  
Yeah, but like if you look at other games, I'll take like early Overwatch as an example because the game was fun, but I didn't enjoy it when I tried playing it later. But like game like that. game like league where it constantly has like metas. And there's certain things that you have to do in the pro scene to keep up with competition. So it definitely is just really exciting. And I kind of like that, like adapting part.

Mitch Reames  
There's, there's always going to be good metas. And that is the delt work. And some of that might be personal preference, or whatever it is, but it is one of the hardest parts of being an Esports Pro is, you know, that doesn't happen in traditional sports, the whole game doesn't change on a dime every six months or so. You know, as you clearly you guys are the best team in the world right now, based on results alone. And I know there's some EU fans would be like, Well, actually, some of our teams didn't get to go. But regardless, you guys want Is there a tough part when you're on top and clearly on top knowing, hey, things are about to shift? And that shift might take us to a point where we're no longer on top? Is that hard to deal with at times? Uh, no, I

TenZ  
wouldn't really say it's hard to deal with. It's just mainly our ability to like, keep a collective mind as a team and stay like on the same page and just play how we normally have been playing definitely like being at the top though, every other team was gonna have a target on your head. And you kind of have to prepare and not really underestimate any other team.

Mitch Reames  
Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah, people will certainly be gunning for you already. I think people that I already work it for you. But even more so now for sure. So talking about the shift kind of dance around it, let's talk about what actually is changing in valorant. Right now recording this on June 22, when this came out, and not publishing this podcast until the fifth of July, so you'll be able to hear it there. But we'll be having a sneak preview of this on press four to diffuse our valorant show, which is coming out tomorrow. So we'll have some tense thoughts there and then check out the full podcast on July 5. So the changes that just happened. I'll summarize very, very briefly. price increases to basically every single ability out there. You've got kayo, which is a walking nerf of some sorts, just basically a bunch of different E and T n T's. I can't remember the I can't read the word. It just stands every single thing installed. Yeah, the EMP is EF PS Thank you. I was like, that's a that's somebody who drives that. I'm like, Why? Why can I not remember this word? EMP is to everything like multiple different abilities all sort of just locked out abilities and promoting aiming, I mean, that's clearly where, where they're aiming here. So talking about sentinels, we have this combination here where you guys just dominated the last patch and so you're clearly very good. But you're also a very tactical player. You're the best Amer invalidated by pure stats. So does this actually benefit sentinels in some way?

TenZ  
I won't lie. I've been praying for this day to happen where they would keep nerfing the the running accuracy or like the dead zone for the tagging or walking everything. And especially like other guns like I think the sheriff got some like mad accuracy reductions. So my CS habits I will like always stand still before I shoot I counter strafe and definitely for this patch, it looks like you have to kind of train more even like with pistols anything so maybe it's like an indirect buff to gunplay, which could indirectly buff my own gameplay. Who knows? I really have to see it. I haven't played the patch yet. So on paper, it looks fantastic.

Mitch Reames  
Interesting. So yeah, it's it does have that that weird combination where Yeah, it's you're gonna have to play more tactical. Yeah, though. I think the running debuff the running nerf is actually gonna be like it's not talked about as much as the release of the new agent or all the the price increases. But that could have a really big impact on just how people play and who specifically and what backgrounds, specifically stand out in, in the game going forward. So you mentioned that you haven't played the act yet. And again, we're recording this on June 22. I did see that you were playing like a little test. Yet a YouTube video about 10 minutes while we're just sort of testing out the different abilities going through the different things with kayo the the new robot he plays initiator, the first new initiator said sky so it's been a little while for that. Going through those abilities ahead of release. What? Uh, what stood out to you about the new agent you described him as broken in that video. Is that, is that still where your head's at? Uh,

TenZ  
I always say like, whenever a new agent comes out whenever like a new patch comes out. It's always fun. Just be like, Oh, damn, this is broken. But really, you'll be able to see what is broken and what isn't broken through competitive play through screens through just playing in everyday, like ranked or whatever. That is the easiest way to tell something's broken or busted right now on paper kayode seem pretty insane, I actually just found out like yesterday that you can break the dagger. So that just is game changing. Also, I found out that if he holds, you can see his location from the pulse. So there's a certain stuff that I didn't notice at the time. And I'm just like, looking at the straight like, kind of like the numbers and not looking at like the small details were down. He can like EMP for like 28 seconds or whatever. So I'm definitely like, maybe like when a new agent comes out, I just I like to overreact a little bit. It's fun.

Mitch Reames  
I think that's I think that's natural for all eSports ever is like a new age is that you're like, Wow, that looks so so good. You're right until you see it actually work with it a cop? You can't the juries, the jury's still out on that. Yeah,

TenZ  
I'll add one more thing. Like kayo, definitely, I think he will be a top tier pick. Because looking at this kit, it's actually kind of like classic tactical shooter Counter Strike style where his flashes to to flash are two ways to throw the flash, you can left click it right click it, so you can throw it supportively. And for yourself with pop flash. He has like the Nate or the Molly, whatever you want to call it that does a lot of damage. But straight off, like those two abilities are just classic tactical shooter. And so I definitely think a lot of teams will, like utilize that. Yeah, I

Mitch Reames  
remember that video, there's no point where you go behind those standard boxes that are in the trading pit and you toss a flash over that you pop out and peek and you're just kind of showing it'll like, Oh, I'm gonna see that. Like, exactly happened next time I watched you match, like, I'm gonna watch that like to the tee. And it's kind of cool to see see a pros first look at a new agent like that, because you get to see, okay, here's how they're gonna use it. And then here's how I'm gonna try and use it to my games later, it failed drastically, but I'm gonna give it a shot at least talking about your guys's playstyle I, you know, in addition to talking to you guys, after a few of your wins, I also was talking to a lot of the other teams. And, you know, I had a whole story about how some of the other teams weren't necessarily giving you guys credit for playing tactically in comparison to Korea and Europe where there was this more like, Oh, they play aggressively solo it like solo team play, or, like solo plays. And the EU teams play more tactically, more team plays. And you know, I just covered that with jazz a different people like that who disagreed? for good reason. So I'm curious, you know, as you talk about that style of play, or the style of play that you're perceived to have by other international regions, we're also seeing a nerf to the post plant Molly's, which was something that version one did really, really well, when they were playing. I'm curious, you know, do you think this was at all a reaction to what happened during stage two? Or is this something they were already planning on doing? And, you know, it just sort of happened to be related to some of the teams that succeeded during stage two?

TenZ  
Yeah, so looking at the, like the post plants, or like riots attempts on kind of adjusting the post one meta, I definitely think that they were looking at matches and seeing like, how powerful the, like the was it called the strat was just playing, retake on site, and you have a bunch of utils. And stop, it's actually, if you don't play against it correctly, it's borderline like almost impossible to actually win the rounds. And one of the things you have to do is you have to be really disruptive, you have to not let them take over the site and like give them the site for free. So to that certain playstyle you just kind of have to adjust to it and play to that place to a certain weakness, for example, since they're saving all their utl for post flat, they're actually not gonna be able to use that much utility going into the site other than like, maybe silver drone or stuff like that. So at the shakta Molly's snakebites, like all of that will just be you are saved until the bomb is planted. So you can kind of rest easy knowing that like you can kind of sit in like a one and done corner or there's a certain aspects that you can get away with.

Mitch Reames  
Definitely, that's a it's a really good point. And we saw some teams do well against that we saw some teams really, really struggle to do it. And there was there was it is probably the most vocal complaint out of pros I heard was the post plet Molly meta and just sort of like anytime there's no counterplay or not a not as obvious of counterplay to certain situations like that, you know it, it feels bad to be on the the

TenZ  
end of that. And I'll go off saying also I would say the postman Molly or the post plant meta was also not affecting just pro play, but also kind of casual games or ranks games. And I think that actually would be probably the most frustrating for players because when you're not queuing up with like five players and you're not on the same page, you won't really know how to counter And how to adjust properly. So that's one thing that can be really frustrating is like if you're keeping ranked on, there's just a viper and a killjoy and enemy team just lining up Molly's every round, your team is not gonna be on the same page to deal with it.

Mitch Reames  
That's a really good point. And I'm glad you brought up casual play. Because as a game developer, as a game designer, you have to cater to, to basically separate groups of players, you have to cater to the best of the best and the esports world. And then the people in broads who don't know what they're doing. And if there are plenty of agents that are, you know, really oppressive, and those rights that aren't actually very good in the top tier, and that's every East for ever. Some games have really, really struggled finding that balance fortnight in particular always prioritize the casual player and pro players got really just sick of trying to play the game, especially when they kept introducing broken mechanics, the morning of major tournaments, that's that's tough to deal with. How do you feel like this? Do you feel like if you had to choose one that these changes? Do they benefit more of a casual audience? Or do they benefit more of the Pro is which one do you think they were weighing heavily more heavily when they made these changes,

TenZ  
so looking at the gunplay, running accuracy being decreased, and just overall accuracy of all guns being decreased, and gun prices going up? I think that kind of favors pro play, and especially abilities going up, it's harder to get your abilities out, and you'll have to play more economically smart. So I definitely think that part caters to pro play, and with the goal towards going up as well.

Mitch Reames  
Makes a lot of sense. And you know, the REITs did a really good job of their ballots on that front, because league is one of those games that does have to deal with it. But everybody treats it as a pretty competitive experience, even when you're in silver, like, there's not quite as much of that, oh, there's a big casual audience and there's a big competitive audience, the just always tilting is the idea hope they take that same approach where it starts from the esport, you know, down, and then the lower ranks are just people trying to do pro strats, but poorly.

TenZ  
So I'm not really a Game Dev. So I'm not gonna put in my opinion here. Because to be frank, I probably don't know anything that I'm doing compared to like what they know, they know, they have the numbers on the spreadsheet, they're, they're doing a bunch of stuff, they're seeing this statistics, so I'll just write with that.

Mitch Reames  
You wouldn't be the first pro player to, to strap on the Game Dev mindset and tell everybody what what needs to change. But, you know, appreciate it say back to what you said earlier, you know, it's their job to do that. I'll let them do that. My job is to is to click it. And yeah,

TenZ  
I really enjoy the game.

Mitch Reames  
Perfect. And that's that's the right kind of mindset right there. I want to ask you, as well about we just celebrated valor in one year, from its full release, you were playing in the closed beta back in April of 2020. You're actually the first person to reach the at the time valerate. Right, which is now the radiate rag on the closed beta. Now, Raceway isn't always indicative of professional success. But in that case, it clearly translated. If you think back to those first days, like valorant, what comes to mind about the game in its very early iterations? And why did you gravitate to it and succeed at it so quickly?

TenZ  
So one of the things that made me very successful early on in the beta and why I was able to get to volunteering first was, I think, a lot of the time, people are treating ranked as like super tryhard, like matches, kind of, and I'd say I'm a lot more proficient in matches than I am in pugs, which most people in theory would be like, Oh, he's just a bug pubstomp or something like that. But really, you won't really know how I am until you actually play with me, I think I can definitely contribute to a lot more in the team. Not just through my aiming, but like through various parts of my gameplay. So there's that and I definitely think like, when we were playing in beta, everyone was like five stacking. And so it was kind of like, like, as I said before, like matches, it was like scrim. So I just really enjoyed having that like high pressure. High pressure gameplay where everyone was trying to win everyone was trying to give government furs

Mitch Reames  
is that because of how much investment happened in the scene from an early age where we had major or speaking of teams before the game was officially released, it was like beta so that closed beta became almost like a proving ground for for pros as people were trying to get keys but they weren't readily available. And you had all these different orgs already investing in valor teams with clearly more on the on the horizon. So it was that like, was that known during the closed beta? It's like hey, this is like a Open tryouts basically for the future of valor in eSports.

TenZ  
Particularly from like an art standpoint, it was really enticing, like, if you could rank high on the leaderboard, or like get violent rank or whatever first. A lot of orgs will kind of look at you and be like, oh, like this player got this verse, where if like, let's say a player that wasn't signed, got going first, would they have gotten signed? So it's kind of like a thing where it was. If you wanted to get signed, that was your best case. And that's why like so many people tried so hard and grinded.

Mitch Reames  
It's a rare opportunity, sometimes not as rare, like traditional sports are like that. But for a new esport to come out, especially a new esport that comes from from Riot Games like that. It's like, Alright, here's, you know, my shot, almost like, hey, this new game is about to come out. And it's a level playing field from day one. You know, anybody can be the first person to this right, let's get it. Yeah. The other thing that happens with a new esport is new content creators come up because, you know, some people transition over as As to be expected. But as the game rises, new stars are are naturally created. And then you also have old stars coming over like the FaZe clan, Overwatch guys, scream and some of the CSGO guys who've come over, but you've climbed up to being one of the biggest, if not the biggest content creator in valerate, you got 1.4 million followers on Twitch 815,000 subscribers on YouTube, are you streaming every night from 7pm to midnight? PST, just in case you guys are wondering when he's online? Oh, if you found a nice balance between content and pro duties over the last few months.

TenZ  
So definitely, for me, especially if I'm a pro player, I will prioritize playing Pro, but I really do. Like I really do enjoy streaming, I enjoy interacting with my community, my fans, like they're all amazing. And honestly, like us pro players, we wouldn't have the amount of like desire to win if there wasn't like a bunch of fans supporting us. Like, that's kind of what keeps us going. And like I just appreciate all my fans.

Mitch Reames  
It's pretty crucial as well, like we see orgs everywhere investigate content creators, like they they are the two sides of Esports. And you know, a lot of times players will retire and then they'll go be content creators that you did something similar, where you're like, Hey, I'm gonna go focus on content creation. How is it? Is it difficult at all to to balance the two? Or do you think it actually provides a lot of benefit? a better question is do you think it provides benefit to the valerate eSports scene to have top players also be big content creators as well.

TenZ  
So I definitely think it's a benefit for just the entire scene as a whole to especially like if you're a pro player to stream, because first off, some people might just watch you for, like who you are as a person. Or some people might watch you just strictly because oh, this player is my favorite pro player. They're like, the best rays are the best like cipher. Let's go watch them. Let's take certain stuff from the gameplay. How do they play this situation? Or Like what? Like, how can I do stuff that they do that would possibly impact my game? So there's, there's certain stuff that you can definitely take from a pro player and from watching their stream even taken from like their mindset, I think is really good. So yeah, I would say just positive to have pro players streaming. It can be quite tiring, though. I will say.

Mitch Reames  
Yeah, there's definitely a people have. I think this is changing a little bit. people's perception of streaming as a career is like, Oh, you get to play video games for your job. Like that's not hard. But it's not really the play that's so hard about streaming, it's the entertaining acting, almost being on camera for five hours interacting with with chat is like, it's a lot more exhausting than just playing five hours. Five hours of effort by itself is also kind of tiring as well.

TenZ  
Well, I'll stream like, three, four hours a day, maybe if I have like an off day on my stream, like six or eight. I will say though, one person in this scene that's just built their franchise, and he is a monster. I don't know how this guy does it. He's he's screaming, he's doing vaad reviews. He's our he's our ideal or coach all in one. And at the same time, this guy streams like eight hours a day. How does he know? Like I don't understand this. I don't understand this at all.

Mitch Reames  
Shoutout to says that's actually crazy. And so many of the, you know, we're I was talking to different players and going back to that tactical thing. I kept talking to him and he's like, we're playing tactical, like I'm putting in the work. These are strategies. We're not just like 10 times better Amer's anybody else like it's foolish to think that we're that much better like this is tactical choices. And we even saw new Terran adopt your guys's strategy because they kept getting killed on split Was it during the turn of it?

TenZ  
I don't remember. Yeah, I

Mitch Reames  
honestly don't remember either. I was hoping you could cover that up. They were getting killed on one map throughout the entire tournament. And they had it in their final match against fanatic in the lower bracket semi finals. And they completely changed their cop to the comp that you guys are running. And I remember seeing a bunch of tweets. Actually, I think

TenZ  
it was haven I think was a haven haven cop. Yeah, so I think we, we, we beat them on haven. And I think they just kind of like questioned what they were doing or like, why it wasn't working. just tried to like adopt our comp just like after one day so it was interesting to see

Mitch Reames  
it didn't work

TenZ  
when Yeah, it didn't work as expected but that's how it is when you're changing characters right off the bat.

Mitch Reames  
Well they actually took more rounds on that haven than they had the entire rest of the tournament like the most they'd won on haven was five rounds I think they took eight off fanatic there so you know not 13 which is kind of the number you need to get to but you know for for switching to tire cop clearly that call was better if they were able to take more rounds without practicing it.

TenZ  
I mean, we'll see in the future if they keep their calm to who knows.

Mitch Reames  
Who knows I mean yeah, a lot of the a lot of things but it just gets to the point of like people giving other teams credit for playing tactically, but then one of the teams that's getting credit for playing tactically copied you guys is cop on a map that they're struggling with. So it's like who's really like the most tactical gave out there? I don't know. quite quite

TenZ  
thing. Am I allowed to like swear? Oh, yeah, of course. You're all good. Okay, um, I'll just say shut up that people that think that we're playing or not playing tactically, we're just holding w that's like bullshit, because you're obviously not looking at like the the little like fine print of how we play and the small details, you're just looking at surface level, like, oh, like the gun goobers. She has, like, really good. You have to really like look at what we do, how we react together as a team, and then you'll realize why we've had so much success that we've had. And that's, that's like one thing people don't notice. And like a lot of people in the community it's like, oh, these guys are just like outselling everyone that's why they're winning. Now, that's not it.

Mitch Reames  
I beat it. In some ways. It's like a really nice compliment of like, you guys are just so much better at the core function of this game that it doesn't matter that you don't have Chad you but it's also like, it just doesn't hold up. But do you actually think about it cuz everybody's really really good at the game? Like it's not like you guys just have this unlock this extra level of, of aiming?

TenZ  
Yeah, well, like if we just worked together really well.

Mitch Reames  
Yeah, clearly the communication works. The the team play works, you guys each understand your roles really well. You know, you can't argue with the results when it comes down to it. Back on the content creation side, I was actually very curious because I had average Jonas on this podcast a few episodes ago. And we talked about co streaming stage two masters but also being a content creator and valor and it gets back to that point of like, a new esport allows new people to kind of explore the content and become names in the consecration world we saw this with in the battle royale genre with people like ninja courage Tim the tap man Nick mercs and all these different people that now are some of the bigger names in gaming and now valor is the the next new esport and like, so I saw you two were playing some games together when you were in Iceland in eSports I think having a bunch of major content creators lifts the content up as a whole like through collaborations like we saw with all those guys are just mentioned in the fortnight Battle Royale genre. How have you seen the content ecosystem around valorant evolve over the last year?

TenZ  
So the content ecosystem I definitely say like first off for content creators collabing it's nothing but good like whenever you see a content creator collabing with another like it's it's honestly just a positive experience both for like the people individually their brands and also their communities being able to like interact, find new streamers as well. So it's everything but positive for that. Everything that is positive Sorry, I think I saw the wrong one.

Mitch Reames  
Oh, absolutely. It's so good to see people playing together. And we actually saw that as well with like the among us craze where it's like that Oh, yeah, like five people together. You could have 10 people together, they could share audiences and they could really like all their content could kind of explode. Have you started to see that happening environment where more and more people are being creative people like average Jonas as well who aren't just pro players, but are pure content creators. Have you start to see that really start to evolve where Hey, there's a lot of chances for cross collaboration, especially cross region collaboration as well with other content creators.

TenZ  
Well, I'd say I see here and there but I definitely think like content creators could do even more. There's nothing really stopping you. So even for myself, like I could collab more. It's just awesome. So we're kind of lazy as a person.

Mitch Reames  
I don't think that's a fair characterize how you're streaming and play broke like so. You know, I don't think you can you everybody wants to put more on their plate, but I think you're doing quite a bit right now. So the last question I want to ask you about is dollar champions, which we touched on a little bit now, we just learned that it's going to be in Los Angeles, which is pretty awesome. I'm in Las Vegas. So I was stoked about that. I was like, sec, I can drive there like, I'll be there. I'll just hang in LA that whole week. As you look forward to stage three, but that also champions following is the only team that's actually qualified for a spot right now. How does that feel to know you'll at least be represented there and you'll be competing with sentinels with these teammates where you guys have great communication and great success already.

TenZ  
Honestly, like it's just amazing. And the storyline couldn't be more perfect of like, na doing well in esport and he won masters two one, Masters, one, Berlin's coming up, I mean, we'll see if we can win that. But we're always like adapting we're always playing really well together. So I have some faith in us as a team. And going into champions I'm pretty sure it will be just as confident as going into like masters to for example.

Mitch Reames  
I love it. I love it. Yeah, you know, I'm supposed to be a journalist is supposed to be impartial. And I am what I've covered the teams but I'm also a fan of North America. eSports. So, especially working to nurture gamers are so heavily devalued. I was so stoked to see you guys go on that international stage and represent na as a region so strongly. So I want to give you one final chance we mentioned your stream, follow him on Twitch subscribe to him on YouTube if he's not a million followers or subscribers on YouTube yet. I imagine that's coming up here pretty soon. What do you all people look out for follow it subscribing? Go for it. Well,

TenZ  
yeah, stream I do. Both tons. I appreciate all my fans. And I think you guys so much. Also shout out nursery gamers for making this happen on the podcast. Yeah.

Mitch Reames  
We appreciate you man. We love the valerate eSports scene we're rooting for settles we're rooting for all evaluate eSports of course. But thank you so much for coming on the show, man. It was a pleasure having you up.

TenZ  
Yeah. Thanks for having me.