"VALORANT is not life" - Victor on his brief return to the stage with Sentinels

A disastrous Kickoff left Sentinels with their poorest domestic showing since the Madrid-winning 2024 lineup. As one of the organizations in VALORANT with the most eyes on them, roster changes were inevitable to meet lofty fan expectations for the rest of the 2026 season and qualify for international events in London and Shanghai. Yet matters went from bad to worse when Sentinels' promised new star Gurjiwan "Jerrwin" Gill faced visa issues, leaving him unable to play in the first game of the split against KRÜ Esports.

In an unlikely turn of events, former Masters Reykjavik winner Victor "Victor" Wong stood in for Jerrwin. Victor has been largely absent from the VALORANT scene in 2025, with a stint on M80 in Challengers following a disappointing showing on NRG. Under rough circumstances as an emergency sub, Sentinels were unable to start their campaign for London with a win, losing to KRU 0-2.

Following Sentinels' defeat, THESPIKE had the opportunity to chat with Victor about his brief experience on Sentinels, his struggles during his time away in 2025, and his thoughts on returning to the top level of competition.

Joining Sentinels

Victor revealed that the opportunity arose from a suggestion by Yassine "Reduxx" Aboulalazm, who brought up the idea of playing with Victor. Sentinels needed someone who "already had experience on stage, so they didn't have to worry about that when getting a sub. And I also had a lot of experience on the agents that Jerrwin plays."

VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Americas Stage 1

Sentinels

0

X

2

KRÜ Esports

Group Omega, Best of 3 - April 10, 2026 - 9:00PM

8

Lotus

13

9

Breeze

13

Sentinels

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Johnqt

1.10

230

36/32/8

+4

1.13

67.3%

153.2

33%

25%

1

3

Reduxx

1.07

210

31/34/13

-3

0.91

67.9%

135.1

30%

43%

3

4

Victor

0.82

192

28/37/5

-9

0.76

58.0%

121.0

11%

53%

10

9

cortezia

0.70

147

22/31/8

-9

0.71

62.7%

101.2

31%

40%

2

3

JonahP

0.61

123

16/33/16

-17

0.48

60.1%

86.3

24%

25%

2

6

KRÜ Esports

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Saadhak

1.26

226

37/26/14

+11

1.42

74.4%

142.9

24%

63%

5

3

Less

1.24

230

35/25/16

+10

1.40

60.7%

140.5

25%

71%

5

2

mwzera

1.16

230

33/24/17

+9

1.38

88.3%

150.5

24%

67%

4

2

Dantedeu5

0.98

212

32/34/7

-2

0.94

65.4%

131.5

20%

40%

6

9

silentzz

0.95

180

30/24/6

+6

1.25

76.8%

119.9

32%

71%

5

2

Despite this, the whole process was hectic due to the nature of Jerrwin's visa situation, with Victor only asked to play five days before the match, leaving barely any time to get to grips with the team. He later praised the team structure, saying, "I'm just really grateful that they treated me like I was already on the team, to be honest."

"I was honestly really impressed with the way they handle things and the whole system they have. I think Martin "Ewok" Ewok is a great coach. I only have good things to say about him from the week I've been here. Same goes for Mohamed Amine "Johnqt" Ouarid. He honestly impressed me with how he thinks. We talked a lot during this weekend, and I was really impressed with how he thinks."

Victor's time away

Victor was last seen on the VCT Americas stage sporting an NRG jersey. When asked about his absence in 2025, Victor revealed that "at the end of the 2024 season, I broke my wrist. Ended up needing two surgeries to fix it. It was just a really long healing process, so that just meant my 2025 was over in terms of being a player."

During the first half of 2025, Victor played through his injury on M80 in Challengers, a roster which eventually dissolved with every member reaching Tier 1: Eduardo "Sato" Nagahama and Anthony "Okeanos" Nguyen on Leviatán, Banh "bao" Bao on Evil Geniuses, and Mirel "Kyu" Braco Hrustemovic on Sentinels. Looking back at his short stint on that lineup, he admitted that "that was way too soon, to be honest. I joined the team before I was able to use a keyboard fully again. That was just a really big mistake by me. I think I was just really eager to play, and I rushed into it. I wasn't even physically capable of playing."

"And also I was mentally in a pretty bad spot because I was just like, 'Everyone's on stage. Everyone's playing. I can't keep up.' I was in a pretty bad place mentally and physically, so that was just a rushed decision by me, which I regret."

Victor's frustration was likely exacerbated by seeing former teammates Austin "crashies" Roberts and Sam "s0m" Oh compete at the highest level, culminating in a spectacle of a grand final at Champions 2025 where NRG edged Fnatic 3-2 in Paris. crashies and Victor had been an inseparable duo since 2020 on T1 before joining Envy together, forming one of the tightest bromances VALORANT has ever seen. Watching crashies do well on Fnatic was "definitely bittersweet" for Victor. "I'm really happy for him. It was just bittersweet because I wanna be there too, and I feel like I am capable as well."

Despite watching his former teammates succeed providing the motivation for Victor to return to the stage in 2026, unfortunately no teams really gave him a look. Yet Victor's misfortune might be turning around, first showing that he can still hang in Tier 1 with this opportunity from Sentinels, but also with the changes to the VCT in 2027 and the return of open qualifiers. The announcement brought about a collective nostalgia for one of the main teams that really benefited from the pre-2023 open circuit: the iconic OpTic Gaming lineup of 2022, with whom Victor won a trophy at Masters Reykjavik.

Victor agrees that these changes are good. "I feel like it gives a lot of players who aren't in VCT right now the opportunity to show what they got. Because right now there's only so many spots in VCT, and there's more good players than spots."

"So maybe next year there'll be more opportunities. Maybe we see a TenZ come back or a yay come back. I was talking to crashies about this. We were just joking like, 'Oh, bring back OpTic. Everyone's available.' We were just joking around about it though. I don't think that'll happen."

"VALORANT is not life"

When asked if there was any message he wanted to give to fans that haven't seen him as much over the past year, Victor responded: "I was going through social media, which I don't really do normally. But I was really happy to see that there was a lot of support for me. People were happy to see me play again. That made me really glad and appreciative, and I'm thankful for that."

"In regards to my future, I'm honestly... even if I get an offer right now, I don't know if I would instantly say yes to a VCT team, to be honest. Because I'm older now, and I realize VALORANT is not life, which is something I struggled with a little bit in my earlier years. At the time, I thought VALORANT was life. My livelihood and my entire mood and how I felt was based off if we won or not. If we were losing, I was not happy. If we were winning, I was happy. And I kinda wanna get out of that obsessive mindset because it's not healthy at all."

Stepping back from pro play undoubtedly gave Victor a bit of perspective on what's important. "One of the biggest eye-openers for me was that I missed a lot of my dog's final years," he revealed. "That kinda made me sad. And my mom's getting older. My family's getting older. I'm getting older. I just wanna spend as much time and not regret, like, 'Wow, I was away for all those years.'"

"I'm totally undecided about what I'm gonna do after today. Totally undecided."

Whether Victor will make his return to pro play through a slot on a partnered team or a grind through open qualifiers in 2027 remains a mystery even to the man himself. Regardless, the veteran still proved that he has it in him to compete at the highest level.

For now, it is likely that Jerrwin will return to the starting lineup for Sentinels' next game against 100 Thieves, with Victor stepping out of the limelight. Going 0-1 in a group with juggernauts like NRG and FURIA will make the road to London even more grueling, making a strong debut from Jerrwin all the more imperative.

Be sure to follow THESPIKE.GG for more VALORANT esports content throughout the VCT 2026 season.