While many people have been keeping an eye on traditional sports, with teams putting out their all during these harder times, esports teams have not been slacking off whatsoever. We’re gonna take a look into a few of our local players from Canada, in the currently growing first person shooter by Riot Games, Valorant. 5v5 teams and superpowered “agents” fighting for control over a bomb or bomb-planting area is what the game boils down to, with strategies, game knowledge, fast reactions, and accurate shots being the requirement for being a big-name player in this competitive tactical shooter. Riot Games is hosting the Valorant Champions Tour, in which they have teams from countries across the world, including North/South America, Europe, and Asia. It is a year-long global circuit with three levels of competition spanning over a year. There are regional challengers events, that then qualify them for international masters events. And as we’re not even halfway through the year yet, with the second round of challengers only just beginning. These events are held almost entirely online, with the exception of countries with available venues such as Korea holding matches in-person. Casters are remotely bringing the hype as teams clash in intense competition. However, it’s important to keep a close eye on not just the match-ups and hype moments, but the Canadian players that have truly helped represent our country. And that’s what we’re here to focus on today. Valorant is a game played across the globe, but our players have proven that Canada is a force to be reckoned with. Players such as Mike “Shroud” Grzesiek, Matthew “Wardell” Bowman Yu, Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik, and pictured below, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo have been redefining Canada’s esports presence.

Starting with Tyson, he is 19 years old, born right on Vancouver Island, and already has been sponsored by Cloud9, one of the largest esports organizations in the world. And for good reason, being the first person known from North America to reach the highest rank in Valorant’s competitive beta. He competed for Cloud9 for quite some time until early this year, where he was temporarily signed onto Sentinels to replace Jay “Sinatraa” Won. Now ranked 12th in the world, Tyson has become one of the best players in Valorant. How? By winning the Valoant Champions Tour Masters stage 1 and 2. Just this last weekend in stage 2, after a crushing defeat by team Andbox in quarterfinals, Tyson along with the rest of team Sentinels ran it back through the lower bracket, defeating teams such as T1 and Immortals, while getting revenge against Andbox in a close 2-1 set, and crushing NRG 2-0 to make it back into grand finals. Sentinels put up an incredible fight getting this far, and TenZ was no “extra” player on the team, making incredible plays, and even carrying the team at times. Team Sentinels, consisting of Shahzeb “ShahZam” Khan, Hunter “SicK” Mims, Jared “zombs” Gitlin, and Michael “dapr” Gulino had a mission, and they weren’t going to let one loss in the beginning stop them. Making it into finals was just the first step, but they leapt past everyone’s expectations when they defeated Cloud9 Blue 3 to zip, earning $20000 for the team, and $4000 for himself in prizing. In Tyson’s own words, “Man does it feel f****** good to win!!!” . It was an incredible comeback that I doubt many spectators will forget for quite some time. TenZ and the rest of team Sentinels will undoubtedly be names to look out for within esports from now on.

Moving onto another big team, Team Solo Mid has been an incredible esports organization founded in 2009, and is recently getting into competing with their team in Valorant. Matt “Wardell” Yu, pictured above, is one of the Canadian players on this team consisting of him, Taylor “Drone” Johnson, Steve “reltuC” Cutler, james “hazed” Cobb, and Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik, another Canadian player. Team Solo Mid also competed in the same bracket as the previously mentioned Sentinels, and were ultimately taken out of the bracket by their rivals, Andbox. While finishing tied for 5th, TSM performed incredibly well. Especially thanks to these two Canadian players, who fought their absolute hardest and performed incredibly well overall, even leading their team as the top 2 match MVP’s in the match against Andbox. Canada has never been the biggest country for competing well in global esports, but these players are changing that history very quickly within Valorant’s online series.

Moving away from the heat of competiton, one of Valorant’s leading content creators, Mike “shroud” Grzesiek, has been doing very well for himself, having a community of over 6.7 million subscribers on youtube, and is ranked third in having the most followers on Twitch with over 9 million. Born in Missisauga, Ontario, Shroud has competed in Valorant in the past, and was even titled as one of the best “aimers”, referring to his accuracy in shooters. but focuses on providing entertaining videos and streams as a main priority ever since 2017. He has participated in multiple tournaments for a variety of games such as Escape From Tarkov, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Apex Legends. His efforts certainly paid off as well, making a stable living through content creation and even winning “Content Creator of the Year” at The Game Awards 2019. Shroud is an inspiration for many young Canadian gamers, and it’s incredible to see such success from a Canadian that’s so dedicated to supporting and participating in esports.

Esports has been on the rise with the increase of online activity due to the pandemic, and over the years with many events gaining popularity, but it’s never been a better time to get into catching a couple matches. The history, players, and future of esports is full of content, and spans over decades. Within Valorant, we have yet to see the remainder of the Champions Tour, but something tells me that it won’t be something to sleep in on. Cheering for Canadian players has been incredible over these previous weeks of competition, and I am truly proud to see them shine along with their teams. Want to see how it all goes down? You can see the schedule and learn more at their schedule page, and watch back most of the matches at the main stream for Valorant. Let’s go TSM and Sentinels!