Sentinels’ TenZ Talks About How Latency and Ping Affects Players at The Highest Level

Sentinels Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo recently experienced what it feels like to play at under 10 ping during his visit to the Sentinels Gaming House in Los Angeles. He was able to play Valorant on the US Central (Texas) servers at 8ms and immediately dropped 35 kills in his first match on Bind with his signature hero, Jett. He has been vocal about how frustrating it is to play at high ping in the past during his recent stream. He came to the conclusion that the difference between pro players at the highest level eventually comes down to ping. Here is everything he had to say about his experience with low latency at the Sentinels Gaming House.

Tenz’s thoughts on latency and pro play

The presence of LAN events provides an even playing ground for pro players because everyone plays at close to zero ping with input lag being the only deciding factor. However, that has changed due to the pandemic with most events going entirely online. Even Valorant, which is one of the most popular esports titles despite being just over a year old, is focused on online events.

While 100 Thieves’ Hiko loves the fact that most events are online and players do not have to travel as much, TenZ has different thoughts on the matter. He talked about how everyone is so close at the highest skill level that at the end of the day, the deciding factor could just be ping (network latency).

He talked about how he was forced to play at 60 ping recently and he was unable to compete against those playing at lower ping. The player had to adapt his playstyle and play outside of his comfort zone even on Jett, which is a very aggressive agent. He said that he was not able to “take a fair gun fight and win it” due to the latency issues.

Ping can definitely make or break games as online events can potentially put some players at a disadvantage. While online events have their advantages, they do not offer a fair playing ground like LAN does. Fortunately for TenZ, VCT Masters 3 Berlin and the Valorant Champions event will be in a LAN setting where he will not have to worry about latency issues.