Sentinels star Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo has explained that he believes ‘grinding’ to be the only defining factor between Diamond, Immortal, and Radiant players in Valorant.
While there are many factors outside of a player’s control, like being stuck alongside a four-stack of untalkative teammates or a Jett who refuses to entry, there’s plenty of aspects that are in a player’s control when climbing Valorant’s ranked ladder.
The most obvious way to contribute is through having a pure mechanical ability to get kills. The difference in players’ ability to frag is much more obvious at lower levels, but, at elite ranks, players’ shooting ability is largely similar.
And TenZ – who famously became the NA server’s first player to reach the top rank of Radiant (or Valorant, as it was confusingly called back in beta) – has explained that the ability to grind is the only real deciding factor between the top ranks.
On his July 16 Twitch stream, TenZ said that he believes there’s not much difference between players in Diamond, Immortal, and Radiant.
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“There is no deciding factor for what makes an immortal player more distinguishable than a Radiant player,” he said. “It really is just who grinds more.
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“And at the end of the day, even Radiant and Diamonds to an extent are kind of the same sh*t.”
TenZ had earlier spoken about a “mental block” that Diamond players can face when against Radiants, caused by intimidation over their opponents being a higher ELO.
“Don’t think about it. Don’t let their ranks be scary,” he advised.
Given how he took to Sentinels’ roster like a duck to water – in turbulent circumstances – it’s no surprise TenZ has such a winning mentality. It’ll serve him well heading into the remainder of VCT Stage 3 as Sentinels continue their domination of NA (and potentially the world).
