So, for real, something insanely crazy happened in Valorant. The Sentinels, being a huge org in esports, took to Twitter to celebrate an insanely big celebration of one of their former academy players. The tweet, in itself, was simple: “The dream come true. From Cubert Academy to World Champion,” with a picture attached. And the replies? Chaos, brother.
For those who do not pay so close attention to the tier 2 Valorant scene, here are the details: Skuba, the player in question, was part of the academy team of Sentinels called Cubert Academy. Now he apparently has become a WORLD CHAMPION with another team. And the Sentinels are here celebrating as if they had found him… I mean, technically they did, but they let him go, didn’t they? The replies are bashing the Sentinels for that.
One player, hyeanboo, called it out: “@Sentinels @skubacs ‘how can we make this about us,'” which is like… yes, exactly. The audacity of this org to act proud when they had this talent and just let him walk. Another reply, from StellqrXD, raised a legit point: “@hyeanboo @Sentinels @skubacs that was their goal even at first, give good tier 2 players a good/better transition to tier 1 teams.” So, maybe this IS the plan from the beginning: to develop players and then send them off to bigger things? But, like… why wouldn’t you keep someone this good for yourself?
Another reply, of course, says: “@Sentinels @skubacs Not something to be proud of💔 Love zaddy but we needed a cracked senti like him and we let him go🤡” Another reply went like “@Sentinels @skubacs You Guys kept Shitrrate and Shitang instead of get him from academy,” just naming names there.
Oh, what was I saying? Oh yeah, the whole academy system thing. This is a real hot-button topic in esports right now: Should orgs be growing talent just to see them succeed elsewhere? I mean, the Sentinels found this player, trained him, and now he’s winning championships for another org. That does sting a little even while trying to act proud about it.
Well, snowconedeitee pretty much summed it up: “@Sentinels @skubacs THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD SIGN ACADEMIES” Like, yeah! This is proof that their development system works! They can find and nurture world-class talent! So maybe the takeaway here isn’t that Sentinels messed up by letting Skuba go, but that they need to be better about promoting from within when they find someone this good.
Then proceeded to import the whole Zellsis drama- multiple accounts in the replies start bringing up the fact that Sentinels kept Zellsis instead of Skuba, and now Zellsis is a world champ while the Sentinels’ main team are… Let’s just say they aren’t winning championships nowadays. ImKrieg2 puts it bluntly: “@Sentinels @skubacs Kept Zellis for this guy 😔 The crying emoji just screams about how that decision is looking right now.
This is all to say in fairness to him, Skuba definitely earned the world champ title, going from just being an academy player. Any level of crazy that would be considered in any esport, even crazier in Valorant because of the type of competition there truly is. And of course, ironically enough, Sentinels kind of birthed him, but it just ended that it wasn’t the team he really won with.
The whole thing is just… messy but kind of beautiful? This is exactly where the path to pro sometimes isn’t straightforward. You sometimes start in academy, get dropped, and then make a comeback to take all of it. Now his former org celebrating the success of their drop-out is quite classy, if a little questionable.
So with that said, big things for Skuba, and that serves as a reminder that talent can really come from anywhere. These academy teams matter, development systems matter, and sometimes the guys you let go come back for you in the best way possible. The Sentinels might really be catching some heat in the replies, but they’re also credited for launching the career of a world champion. It’s complicated, man. Just like everything else in esports, especially with teams like G2 Esports in the mix. This kind of drama happens across PlayStation and Xbox gaming scenes too.
