OWL MVP Sinatraa exiting Overwatch for Valorant

In a major coup for the nascent Valorant esports scene, 2019 Overwatch League MVP Jay "Sinatraa" Won is leaving Overwatch competition to join Sentinels' Valorant team, ESPN reported Tuesday. Sinatraa led the San Francisco Shock to the 2019 Overwatch League championship last September, and he was part of the United States team that won the Overwatch World Cup in November, winning MVP honors there as well.

Sinatraa, a 20-year-old from Shoreline, Wash., later confirmed on Twitter that he's moving to Valorant, writing in a TwitLonger post that he "straight up just lost passion for the game." "i did not make this decision in 1 day it took a full month of non stop thinking every day and sleepless nights from being so stressed," he added. "... ultimately i wanted to do whats right for me. ...

"i just wanna say sorry to all my fans, fans of OWL, and everyone on shock. in the past month i did not give OW/OWL my all and it showed in scrims and even in OWL so im sorry." The Shock tweeted, "He came, he saw and he conquered. Thank you and best of luck in your future endeavors @Sinatraa"

The Los Angeles-based Sentinels currently field teams in Fortnite, Apex Legends and Halo. They previously ran a League of Legends Championship Series team known as Phoenix1, and they were partners in the Los Angeles Gladiators from the start of the Overwatch League in 2018 until they split with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment last October. Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf, the 2019 Fortnite World Cup singles champion, also plays under the Sentinels banner.

Last year, Sinatraa helped the Shock win the Stage 2 playoffs as well as the season-ending playoffs. San Francisco also was runner-up in the regular-season standings as well as in the Stage 1 and Stage 3 playoffs. In the inaugural OWL season of 2018, Sinatraa and the Shock came in ninth place in the regular season and missed the playoffs.

He also was part of the U.S. teams that tied for fifth in the 2017 and 2018 Overwatch World Cups. The Shock are currently in fifth place in the Overwatch League with a 5-2 record. They beat the Los Angeles Valiant 3-0 on Saturday -- but Sinatraa did not compete, the fourth consecutive San Francisco match that he sat out.

--Field Level Media