Tyson “TenZ” Ngo of Cloud9 became the first player to reach the highest rank in Valorant, a rank that incidentally goes by the eponymous name “Valorant.” The former CSGO player reached the top rank in Riot Games’ FPS title just days after ranked was released.
Valorant’s closed beta has been increasing in popularity since its release in the first part of April. Since then the developer team has been forthcoming with changes that players have wanted to see come to the game. One of those changes was the addition of a competitive game mode to divide casual and competitive players. Valorant’s “rated” mode was released at the end of April for North America and Europe. The rated system features eight different rankings spanning from Iron (lowest) to Valorant (highest). Each tier of ranked also has three subsections.
FIRST NA VALORANT RANKED PLAYER pic.twitter.com/6WKfbBbDtP
— TenZ (@TenZOfficial) May 2, 2020
Cloud9 signs Valorant player
Many teams have already started to form teams for Valorant‘s upcoming esports scene. Professional players have come from various backgrounds that include Overwatch and CSGO. Cloud9 was among the first wave of teams to start signing players to its squad. TenZ was the first player to be announced for Cloud9 before he was ever rated Valorant in-game.
Prior to signing with Cloud9, TenZ played professional CSGO in minor leagues. His career started back in 2017 when he played for the minor Canadian team SubtLe. From there he played on various other teams including Bad News Bears and eventually Cloud9. In February of 2020, he retired from the CSGO scene and took up streaming on Twitch. From there he was recruited to join Cloud9’s Valorant team. Cloud9’s team currently consists of only TenZ, but with ranked now available it’s only a matter of time before the team is finished.
Riot Games’ Valorant congratulated TenZ on his achievement of becoming the top player in North America. As of now, he is the only known Valorant rank in NA, but more players will follow as ranked continues.
For more Valorant coverage, stay tuned to Daily Esports.
