sinatraa gets six-figure offer to play Valorant in India
Valorant EsportsFormer Sentinels star Jay ‘sinatraa’ Won has been offered a six-figure contract to play competitive Valorant in India.
On Twitter, Rohith ‘KR’, the CEO of Indian organization Gods Reign, made an “open offer” of a contract worth $144,000 a year for sinatraa to play for his Valorant team.
The tweet came in response to a comment from Abhisek ‘GodspeedxD’ Bajaj, a Valorant coach for Bleed eSports. He said that Indian organizations looking to sign foreign players should “look at NA” following the end of the Challengers qualifiers, which left “a lot of good players without a team”.
Rohit noted that the offer doesn’t include medical, travel, or hospitality, but said that sinatraa would receive 30 percent of his annual salary upfront.
sinatraa competed in the last-chance qualifier for NA Valorant Challengers with UNTAMABLE BEASTS, a pug team featuring his former Sentinels teammate Jared ‘zombs’ Gitlin, ex-OpTic star Jimmy ‘Marved’ Nguyen, and streamer duo Connor ‘PROD’ Moran and Coby ‘dizzy’ Meadows.
The team made it to the double-elimination portion of the qualifier, in which it was defeated by Nearest Airport and unfazed, finishing in 13th-16th place. His Twitch channel peaked at 45,000 viewers at one point during the qualifier, a sign of the popularity that he still enjoys despite not competing since March 2021, when he was suspended following sexual assault accusations made by his former girlfriend Cleo ‘cle0h’ Hernandez.
Who are Gods Reign?
Founded in 2018, Gods Reign are an Indian organization based in Bangalore. Their PUBG Mobile team placed second at the 2019 India Series, pocketing over $13,000.
In October 2022, Gods Reign expanded into Valorant with an Indian roster. Before the turn of the year, the team placed third in the Indian qualifier for Penta Pro Series, a tournament that was part of Riot’s off-season Asian circuit.
Gods Reign’s team will be looking to participate in the South Asian Valorant Challengers League, which will offer access to the Pacific Ascension tournament.
On January 23, Valorant reporter Seulgi revealed that Gods Reign were set to sign their second Australian player, Kale ‘autumn’ Dunne, after already reaching an agreement with Nick ‘tixx’ Quinn.
At the time of writing, sinatraa has not responded to Gods Reign’s offer. He has offered no updates about future plans after stating in April 2022 that he wanted to return to competition.
The interest of Indian organizations in North American talent isn’t new. Global Esports, one of the ten partner teams in the Pacific international league, recently signed Jordan ‘AYRIN’ He, who attended VCT Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen and Valorant Champions 2022 with XSET.
On Twitter, Global Esports co-founder and CEO Rushindra Sinha reminded Rohit that in 2017, sinatraa signed a $150,000-a-year contract with NRG Esports to play for their Overwatch League team, the San Francisco Shock. The Gods Reign CEO replied saying that his organization will “reconsider the terms of the offer if sinatraa is interested”.