TenZ returns to Sentinels’ VALORANT roster—but replacing who?

Sentinels’ wild ride that is the 2023 VCT Americas season is taking another unexpected turn. The org is bringing TenZ back into the starting roster ahead of the team’s final two matches. But it’s not been revealed yet who he’s stepping in for.

In a short announcement video today, TenZ interrupted coach Adam Kaplan’s address to the fans, saying “fuck it, I’m back.” But while kaplan has been clear about who’s replacing who in previous announcements, the full status of Sentinels’ starting roster is currently unknown.

It’s another change of course for Sentinels this year, who just two weeks ago made the move to permanently bring Marved in for TenZ for the rest of the season—or so we thought. That move was originally made to give TenZ some extended time off after a finger injury and a positive COVID test amidst other circumstances, which itself came after a surprising coaching change.

In Marved’s short stay with Sentinels, the team secured a massive win against MIBR in his first match but then suffered massive 0-2 losses to both Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses. Their season now sits upon the edge of a knife, but a daunting path to the playoffs is achieveable: Sentinels need to win their last two games while both 100T and EG lose their last two.

Related: Playoff scenarios for every VCT Americas team

Fans have been speculating about who TenZ is replacing in the starting roster on sites like Reddit and VLR, saying that TenZ had been scrimming with the Sentinels players recently and that zekken was taking on the agents or roles typically played by the team’s in-game leader, dephh.

According to tracker.gg, zekken has played Omen on Lotus, Harbor on Pearl, and KAY/O on Ascent, all of which have been played by dephh during VCT matches. Zekken has still been playing Raze on ranked Fracture, though, instead of the Breach that dephh has been playing in the VCT.

Sentinels’ next match is against winless KRÜ Esports on Sunday, May 14 at 2pm CT.

Update May 9 4:25pm CT: Sentinels are reportedly parting ways with Rory “dephh” Jackson and will be moving Tyson “TenZ” Ngo into the starting roster, according to VALORANT reporter George Geddes.