The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2023 season is almost upon us and we are already witnessing some hot drama emerging from the North American (NA) region. On 12th January, the Sentinels Twitter account posted a video clip featuring the Valorant team’s coach Don “SyykoNT” Muir, and star player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo. While the clip itself was funny, a comment from former Sentinels player and in-game leader (IGL) Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan stirred controversy, gaining the attention of the Valorant community, fans, pros, and organizations alike.

The video featuring SyykoNT and TenZ was captioned, “might have to give it a spin this weekend,” a reference to Sentinels’ strategy book, a running joke in the community.

What did ShahZaM comment?

The video showed SyykoNT stumbling upon Sentinels’ “stratbook” roulette wheel that had instances like “TenZ, go kill!” written on it. Commenting on this post, ShahZaM said, “Oh yeah, one time I spun the wheel and it landed on ‘Please play with Shroud, we don’t care if you win, just make it hype. We’ll personally guarantee you a spot in franchising if you do’”

This was a reference to Sentinels roping in FPS superstar and veteran player Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek for the VCT NA Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) in August 2022. Back then, Shroud also confirmed that he was just filling in for the LCQ as the controller player. 

Replying to ShahZaM’s accusation, Sentinels wrote, “There's no way that would fit on the wheel.” However, Sentinels CEO Rob Moore was not appreciative of the exchange. He commented, “@ShahZaMk It’s weird that since you left all you talk about is how you want to be with the organization, when for all of 2022 you behaved like you didn’t want to be here. It seems like you have returned to the focus you had in 2021. If so, @G2esports will be in great hands.”

While Moore made it seem like ShahZaM was lying about being promised a seat in the team after franchising, ShahZaM asked him to own up to his statement and do better. He wrote, “Are you actually going to deny promising me a spot if I did you this ‘huge favor’? You can own up to it and do better. don't lie to your players. best of luck to you and your new team.”

Replying to this, Moore simply wrote, “I did not”

Meanwhile, the Valorant community has been “grabbing popcorns” and enjoying the drama that unfolded over a harmless video clip. Fans have also been pointing out how Shroud was caught in the crossfire.

Shroud tweeted, “I…” referring to the uneasy situation he was put in amidst the ShahZaM and Sentinels drama on Twitter.

Notably, ShahZaM was announced as a member of G2 Esports’ Valorant team on 12th December 2022 and he shall be playing with another former Sentinels player Michael “dapr” Gulino in the Ascension league.