The 24-year-old American made the revelation on a live stream, stating that while he will remain with Sentinels, he will not be returning to compete under the franchise.
��I was scrimming for like a week,�� zombs said.
��The team I was making had some potential and we had some potential organizations interested. But then I went to Los Angeles, I talked to the SEN owner, and now I never want to leave SEN. I am staying on SEN forever.
“I have been on SEN since the beginning, since they had like zero followers. I am not going to compete again. It��s not worth it for me anymore. I have opportunities that are better for the future, that are better in every aspect than competing.��
Zombs had previously started his professional esports career playing Overwatch in 2016 with WEUNITED. After a month with the European esports franchise, the team was disbanded, and he made his way to FaZe Clan. He spent a year with FaZe, after which he was unsigned for months before joining Simplicity in 2018, where he spent about three months.
After spending six months without a team, zombs was acquired by the North American franchise Skyfoxes. He spent four months with the franchise and then proceeded to retire from Overwatch competitive play.
Having announced his retirement from Overwatch, he made a switch to Apex Legends, where he only spent a lone season with Sentinels before retiring from the esports title in 2020.
His career as a Valorant player started off in 2020 after he made the switch from Apex Legends, but he remained with the franchise. He was a part of the franchise’s very first Valorant lineup assembled in April 2020. The franchise dominated the region in their first year and carried on their success into the following year.
In his two years with Sentinels, he assisted the team in clinching several regional titles, becoming one of the best teams in the North American region. He also has an international title under his belt, having won the VCT 2021 Stage 2 Masters Reykjavik. Their championship win made them the first North American esports franchise to clinch an international Valorant title.
However, his career took a nose dive in April 2022 as he was moved to the inactive roster during the season, with Eric ��Kanpeki�� Xu brought in as a replacement. Zombs attempted to create a new team but lost the zeal after discussing with the franchise owner.
According to him, the formation of a new team was not worth it, as it is a difficult task to get every player on the same page. With every roster having its own peculiar issues, zombs didn’t think he wanted to spend years of his life figuring it out.
It is unclear what the next direction is for zombs, but reports suggest he will carry on as a member of Sentinels, becoming their Valorant content creator. He will be joining a high-profile list of content creators which includes Tarik “tarik” Celik, Brandon “aceu” Winn, and Jay “sinatraa” Won.
]]>The Los Angeles-based esports organisation took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce their four-man VALORANT squad, which features two retired Overwatch pros in Jay “Sinatraa” Won and Jared “zombs” Gitlin as well as two ex-CS:GO players in Hunter “SicK” Mims and Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan.
“Time to write the next chapter,” read the announcement.
“We are excited to announce details about our Valorant team consisting of sinatraa, ShahZaMk, zombs and SicK.”
Sentinels added that their new additions are working together to find a fifth member to complete the squad.
SicK announced his retirement from the CS:GO esports scene last Wednesday, claiming Counter-Strike had become “incredibly stale and tedious” after five years as a pro. He played for several prominent teams throughout his career, including Team SoloMid, Misfits Gaming, Rogue, Complexity Gaming and Chaos Esports Club.
The move to VALORANT sees SicK reunite with ShahZaM, with whom he played at TSM, Misfits and Complexity. The duo saw a lot of success in their joint endeavours, including a top-six finish at the Esports Championship Series Season 7 Finals with Complexity as well as a semi-finals appearance at the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals and a silver medal at Americas Minor Championship – Boston 2018 with Misfits.
Joining the CS:GO duo is sinatraa, who was widely regarded as one of the best Overwatch esports pro in the world until he announced his retirement this week. Not only is the 20-year-old American is a reigning Overwatch League and Overwatch World Cup champion, he was named the 2019 OWL Most Valuable Player after leading the San Francisco Shock to their maiden title.
Sinatraa unveiled his shock retirement from the Overwatch scene with a Twitlonger post where he explained he had “straight up just lost passion for the game”. He added that while his decision was not an easy one, in his mind it was the right move to make.
Zombs, the fourth member of Sentinel’s VALORANT roster, was involved in Overwatch esports between 2016 and March 2019, although he never reached the same heights as sinatraa and never played in the Overwatch League. The 21-year-old American has spent the last year and a bit on Sentinels’ Apex Legends squad, helping them finish third in the EXP Invitational at X Games Minneapolis and sixth at the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational.
Sentinels are now one of many esports organisations who have gone early and signed a VALORANT roster while the game is still in the beta phase. Earlier this month, Ninjas in Pyjamas announced that their entire Paladins squad would convert to Riot Games’ highly anticipated first-person shooter.
Such moves have been met with mixed opinions, seeing how VALORANT does not yet have an established competitive scene outside of the CLUTCH Series and a few minor tournaments.
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