Jay Won, known online as sinatraa, has officially left the Overwatch League (OWL). As of April 28, the star player made the switch to playing Valorant competitively. Valorant recently announced an upcoming Competitive matchmaking mode, opening the door to more players like sinatraa.
Sinatraa was one of the leaders of the team San Francisco Shock, and finished first in both the Overwatch World Cup and the OWL Playoffs in 2019. He took to Twitter and linked to a long post detailing his reasons for retirement and feelings about his teammates.
In his post, sinatraa says he "straight up just lost passion for the game" because of game features like 2-2-2 lock or the Overwatch character bans. He adds that he wasn't having fun playing anymore and that the decision to quit OWL took a long time. The bulk of the post is made up of jokes, compliments, and memories he shared with his San Francisco Shock teammates, who he seems regretful to be leaving behind.
The way bans currently work have been frustrating to many players. Overwatch and OWL are incredibly popular, but sinatraa can't be the only player to simply stop enjoying the game. Still, Blizzard has a track record of being responsive to Overwatch's player base, and has announced upcoming changes to the bans and Hero Pool system. Sometimes players just stop enjoying a game, and that doesn't necessarily mean the game itself is unenjoyable.
Valorant hasn't even been fully released yet, which makes its competitive game and community a lot different than that of Overwatch. Riot Games recently announced that Valorant would be getting a ranked queue soon, but not yet. Sinatraa's decision to leave OWL behind and start playing competitively for a game still in beta could be seen as risky. His new team, the Sentinels, is also new to Valorant. It remains to be seen what the game's competitive scene will look like, and whether it'll be as successful as OWL.
However, sinatraa is a proven pro gamer and team player, and it makes sense that he'd be able to translate his discipline and skills from one game to another. Such an accomplished gamer could be just what the Valorant community needs for Competitive mode (when it releases). And after sweeping the competition in Overwatch for the last couple years, maybe sinatraa needs a new challenge.
Overwatch is available now for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.