Tyson Van Ngo (born May 5, 2001), professionally known as TenZ, is a Canadian

online streamer An online streamer or live streamer is a type of social media influencer who broadcasts themselves online through a live stream to an audience. History Streaming arose in the early 2010s, originating on sites like YouTube where users could upl ...

and former professional ''

Valorant ''Valorant'' is a 2020 First-person shooter, first-person tactical shooter, tactical hero shooter video game developed and published by Riot Games. A free-to-play game, ''Valorant'' takes inspiration from the ''Counter-Strike'' series, borrow ...

'' and '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' player. He began his esports career in October 2019 as a ''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' player for

Cloud9 Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...

. In April 2020, he transitioned to ''Valorant'', playing for Cloud9. He took a break from professional ''Valorant'' in January 2021 to focus on full-time streaming career on Twitch. Later in April, he was loaned to Sentinels. He went on to win the VCT Stage Two Masters in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

later that year. In June 2021, his Cloud9 contract was bought out by Sentinels, where he would remain until the end of his professional career in September 2024.

Career

TenZ's professional career began in July 2019 when, at the age of 18, he joined the

team in the

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

title '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' (''CS:GO''). He was seen as a rising North American prodigy. He had previously stood in for some organizations. However, after the team failed to perform at a high level, TenZ was benched in October of that year. TenZ began full-time content creation in January 2020. In However, in April 2020, following the public beta release of

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher, and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on to develop ...

' first-person shooter ''

'', TenZ announced his decision to retire from ''CS:GO'' and opted to transition into ''Valorant'', thereby becoming Cloud9's first professional player in the title. In January 2021, TenZ announced his departure from professional ''Valorant'' to focus on a career in content creation. However, his hiatus was short-lived, as Cloud9 agreed to loan TenZ to Sentinels in April 2021, following the suspension of Sentinels player

Sinatraa Jay Won (born March 18, 2000), professionally known as Sinatraa, is an American esports player and content creator. Won began his career as a player in the game ''Overwatch (video game), Overwatch''. He initially competed for Selfless Gaming and ...

. During the first two stages of the 2021 ''Valorant'' Champions Tour (VCT), TenZ competed remotely from Canada. Sentinels went on to win the first international ''Valorant'' tournament, the VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavík after sweeping

Fnatic Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylised as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded on 23 July 2004, it has players from around the world competing in several games. Fnatic' ...

in the grand finals by a score of 3–0; TenZ was named the grand finals MVP. On June 2, 2021, Sentinels bought out TenZ's contract, reported to be valued between to $1.5million. After their first international trophy on May 30, 2021, TenZ and Sentinels would not win another trophy for almost 3 years. On April 18, 2023, Sentinels head coach Adam Kaplan announced that TenZ would be temporarily benched due to illness and a hand injury. On March 24, 2024, TenZ achieved his second international trophy, winning VCT Masters Madrid alongside Sentinels by defeating

Gen.G Gen.G (, stand for "Generation Gaming"), also referred as Gen.G Esports and previously known as KSV Esports, is a professional esports organization with headquarters in Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica, Seoul, and Shanghai. According to Fo ...

3-2. With this win, he is the second ''Valorant'' player to win two Masters trophies, and the only player to do so under the same organization. (Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov was the first to do so with

Gambit A gambit (from Italian , the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices with the aim of achieving a subsequent advantage. The word '' gambit'' is also sometimes used to describe si ...

and

.) On September 14, 2024, TenZ announced his retirement from professional ''Valorant'' after four years of competing.

Personal life

Ngo, born on May 5, 2001, is from

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city of about 100,000 on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. "The Harbour City" was previously known as the "Hub City", which was attributed to its original layout design with streets radiating fr ...

, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and is of

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

descent. He lived in Canada before moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in January 2022. Ngo is engaged to Kyedae Shymko, a content creator. The couple announced their engagement in August 2022. Ngo stated in an interview that he had

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple ...

, but he did not fully address the disorder until he took a break from competitive ''Valorant''. Ngo also revealed in a video published on the official Sentinels YouTube channel that he is protanomaly

colorblind Color blindness, color vision deficiency (CVD) or color deficiency is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. The severity of color blindness ranges from mostly unnoticeable to full absence of color perception. Color bl ...

, and as a result uses yellow instead of red as his enemy highlight color in ''Valorant''.

Awards and nominations

References

{{Reflist 2001 births Living people Canadian esports players Cloud9 (esports) players Canadian Twitch (service) streamers Canadian people of Vietnamese descent Canadian people of French descent People from Vancouver Island People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Valorant players Streamer Award winners