In his return to the professional VALORANT stage this past weekend after months away, Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen proved he hasn’t lost a step in a standout stand-in performance for Sentinels after star Tyson “TenZ” Ngo stepped back this week due to health concerns.
But Marved’s performance was so good that it’s got some Sentinels fans thinking the team should keep him in the starting group going forward in VCT Americas. And his post-game comments indicate a potential desire for the former OpTic foundation to stick around long term.
Following Sentinels’ victory over MIBR on April 23, Marved gave a shoutout to his fans for sticking with him, ending the post-match interview by saying “I’m not washed. I’m here to stay.” While he could just mean he’s here to stay in the top echelon of pro VALORANT players, many are reading into the idea that he means staying with Sentinels.
Discussions across various sites, namely Reddit, prominently feature Sentinels and NA VALORANT fans suggesting the team played almost too well with Marved to consider putting him back on the bench. Sentinels as a whole did play better overall with him in the mix: as noted by VALORANT statistician willminder, Sacy led the team in kills after switching back to initiator and zekken won 61 percent of his opening duels after moving to duelist.
After taking a break following VCT 2022, Marved said the Sentinels’ substitute offer really appealed to him as it “allowed [him] to have one foot in the door and one foot out,” according to an interview with Esports Illustrated. Prior to his dismissal, former Sentinels head coach Syyko expressed similar sentiments in an interview with Dot Esports, saying after week one that Marved “really wasn’t interested in being a starter.”
Much has changed since then, though, and a full-time call-up for Marved for the rest of the season isn’t out of the question. Between his own health issues and the incredibly serious health issues his partner Kyedae is publicly going through, it’s entirely possible that TenZ opts for extended time off and could maybe even sit out the rest of the season. It may not even be his call if Sentinels management thinks the team has a better shot with Marved playing.
On the same day Sentinels beat MIBR, Cloud9 defeated NRG, which resulted in Sentinels jumping from eighth to sixth place in VCT Americas. With opponents like Evil Geniuses and KRÜ coming up, a playoff run is certainly within the realm of possibility for Sentinels. What version of Sentinels we’ll see during this run remains to be seen, though.
