sinatraa returns to competitive Valorant with star-studded team for Challengers qualifier
Valorant EsportsFormer Sentinels player Jay ‘sinatraa’ Won will take part in the NA Valorant Challengers Last-Chance qualifier, it has been announced.
sinatraa will compete in the qualifier with a team called ‘Untamable Beasts’ alongside his former Sentinels teammate Jared ‘zombs’ Gitlin and ex-OpTic star Jimmy ‘Marved’ Nguyen.
Rounding out the lineup for this tournament are two well-known North American streamers: Connor ‘PROD’ Moran and Coby ‘dizzy’ Meadows.
The announcement of the team has been met with enthusiasm in the Valorant community. In less than four hours, PROD’s tweet breaking the news amassed over 300,000 views.
The NA Challengers Last-Chance qualifier will take place between January 17 and 22 and will feature 256 teams. The top two sides will secure the final spots in NA’s Challengers League, the region’s second-tier competition.
sinatraa returns to Valorant action
A former Overwatch star who won the Overwatch League in 2019 with the San Francisco Shock, sinatraa transitioned to Valorant in April 2020 and quickly became one of the game’s biggest names as part of a Sentinels team that won most domestic tournaments during the first year of Riot Games’ FPS title.
But in March 2021, he was suspended by his organization, Sentinels, and Riot Games amid an investigation into sexual abuse allegations levied against him by former girlfriend Cleo ‘cle0h’ Hernandez.
SentinelsTwo months later, Riot announced that sinatraa had been suspended for six months, dated retroactively to March 9, “for failing to fully cooperate with the investigation.” The developer deferred the matter to law enforcement authorities, stating, however, that its own investigation had not produced “a definitive conclusion”.
sinatraa’s suspension ended in September 2021, and in April 2022 he announced his intention to return to competition, adding that he would begin tryouts with teams shortly.
A report from Dot Esports later that month stated that sinatraa was discussed as a potential replacement for zombs as Sentinels underwent roster changes after a poor run of form. But in the months since, the 22-year-old has not been linked with any teams, at a VCT or Challenger level.
