Why did Shroud join Sentinels’ Valorant roster? Streamer’s comeback to esports explored

Michael "Shroud" made a sensational return to professional esports after the official Twitter account of Sentinels announced earlier today that the 28-year-old former PUBG player would be joining their official Valorant roster. Interestingly, he has been away from competitive esports for a long time now. His return, however, has raised a lot of eyebrows to the extent that fans have been questioning the veracity of the news itself.

This is Shroud's first competitive esports appearance after a hiatus of almost five years. His last stint at Cloud9 ended in 2017 before he retired as a CS: Go pro in April 2018.

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Fans in disbelief after news of Shroud returning to esports was announced

Shroud has definitely sent shock waves across the gaming community after he was revealed to have made a comeback from retirement to participate in competitive esports gaming. The captioned tweet, which announced his addition to the roster, reads:

"The legend returns, and he's here to win @shroud joins the Sentinels Valorant roster"

The Canadian streamer can be seen donning Sentinel's famous red kit while sipping from a mug. In rather Shroud-like fashion, he delivered a short, but impactful statement:

"I'm back, baby."

Apparently, Sentinels needed a fifth player to complete their roster for their competitive Valorant matches after one of their players, Hunter "SicK", left the team due to personal reasons. The American esports organization are hoping that Michael can help them in North America's Last Chance Qualifier 2022 to be held in August.

Following the announcement, the streamer took to Twitch to confirm that his move to the organization was indeed real and that he would also be joining the rest of the team in a boot camp shortly by stating:

"We start prac real soon. We gotta boot camp real soon..."

However, fans weren't the only group who refused to believe his return. Members of Sentinels themselves had reservations upon hearing from the streamer that he was interested in joining their roster. The 28-year-old later addressed the situation on his stream:

“All (Sentinels) thought I was trolling... they all thought I was trolling, but I was not trolling.”

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Fans have flooded in with their reactions

Ever since the announcement, fans have poured in with their reactions and comments. Many believe that along with players such as Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan and Tyson "TenZ" Ngo, the new Sentinels roster looks quite solid. A group of people have also had their doubts regarding the sudden move, considering that the Canadian streamer has been away from competitive esports for quite some time, regardless of his past success with Cloud9.

Michael isn't the only one to have made the switch from Cloud9 to Sentinels. The Canadian streamer and esports gamer, TenZ, was also previously in Cloud9's roster before joining his current team in 2021. In fact, even Cloud9's Twitter handle tweeted about the sensational return of an esports athlete who many consider to be the 'GOAT.'

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With Shroud revealing that he would soon be joining the team to practice for the LCQ tournament in August, Sentinels certainly seem to be in a strong position. Obviously, fans are also optimistic at the opportunity to see their favorite streamer/gamer return to a competitive esports event.