SEN SicK going through hardship – Valorant community Friend or Foe?

Hunter “SicK” Mims is having a tough go at life lately, while the Valorant community is actively engaged in both the good and the bad of the entire situation.

SicK was an original member of the Sentinels VALORANT line up since the organization boomed onto the scene in 2020. Unfortunately, off the back of Sentinel’s declining performance in 2022, Sick was sidelined as the team’s 6th member of the roster.

This story built slowly, starting all the way back in mid 2022. Back then, Sentinels team leader ShaZam confirmed Sick would be missing in several matches in the 2022 VCT NA Stage 2 Challengers due to an unspecified family emergency. This extremely vague reason was then followed up with Sick confirming through Twitter that he had been recently struggling with his own mental health and had hoped to return to the competitive scene. As a result of Sick not competing in Challengers, Sentinels ended last place 0-5, having forced their coach at that time Rawkus to fill temporarily as the team’s 5th player. This event had likely created a rift between Sick and the rest of the team.

Over the next months everything began to unravel.

SEN SicK’s story and how it all went down

SicK gained attention for all the wrong reasons, and much worse than the usual fan hate during Sentinel’s declining performance. At the start of 2023, Sick revealed he had broken up with his girlfriend Kissubie. Initially when Sick first broke the news to his stream, he mentioned no bad blood in between them, opting instead to remain friends.

However, this all changed when Kissubie claimed the reason for their separation had been due to Sick cheating with another girl. Sick defended himself, revealing news no one expected, claiming they were in an open relationship. More specifically he mentioned that Kissubie engaged with others during their relationship, the issue only emerging between the pair when he had engaged with another girl. This divided Sick’s community, with some calling him a “cuck” due to his relationship dynamic, while others called out Kissubie for fostering a one-way open relationship so she could see others whereas Sick could not do the same.

Over the last few days their drama intensified with pot shots being thrown at each other.

Kyedae drama with Sick

Amongst the former couple’s online quarrel, Kissubie mentioned out of the blue that Sick had made Kyedae uncomfortable. Without any context or further details, Sick’s fans were outraged, as Kyedae was not only a popular Valorant streamer, but is also the fiancé of Sick’s teamate TenZ (albeit Sick being benched as the 6th man).

Due to Kissubie not providing any detail on what / how Sick made Kyedae uncomfortable, and the context on SicK supposedly cheating, fans immediately assumed the worst that Sick had made a “move” on Kyadae. This speculation spread far and wide, with Sick’s reputation taking a dramatic downturn.

Kyadae refused to comment further as she did not want to be involved in the drama.

With all eyes on Sick possibly betraying his teammate TenZ by making a move on Kyedae, Sick soon clarified that there had been a great misunderstanding. He revealed that he felt greatly disrespected by both Sentinels & Riot when in Brazil.

As the 6th player, he was denied access into the stadium with his friends despite telling both Sentinels management and Riot that he would be doing so in advance. This was aggravated when he found out Kyedae, the girlfriend / fiancé of TenZ, had been allowed access to the stadium, while he himself as the team’s 6th player was not. While not directly angry at Kyedae, he vented about the issue causing the “uncomfortable” situation, which had not been romantically charged in anyway.

This misunderstanding had been cleared up between himself and Kyedae, but opened up a whole new drama with Sentinels & Riot.

Where we are now and the big downward spiral

While Sick cleared up with drama with Kyadae with his community, not everyone had been informed, with the previous situation still having a negative impact on his reputation overall.

Knowing he had now exposed the Brazil situation and called out Sentinels, he fell even more out of favor with management, and knew he would likely never return to the starting roster or get dropped entirely. Still on the bench and with his recent rift between himself and Sentinels management, Sick’s mental health continued to decline.

SicK gets arrested

Sick got arrested on the 4th of March due to criminal trespassing at a Ferrari dealership, after he refused to leave despite being told by the business to do so. Despite his bond being only set at $5,000, none of Sick’s friends or family had bailed him out, thus being forced to sit in jail. It was only a few days later that Sentinels tweeted they were committed in supporting Sick, posting both his bail and sponsoring his sister to support his release. Unfortunately due to his now “criminal” conduct, Sentinels decided to suspend Sick, removing him as the team’s 6th man.

Sick’s continued mental health decline was clear through his streams, with numerous outrage statements made. This was further fueled by a part of his fan base that continues to positively enforce his erratic behavior. Sick was recently arrested for the second time once again for criminal trespassing on the 8th of May following erratic behavior on stream. Further details have yet to be reporting, but Sick confirmed he was released with a tweet on the 10th of may.

Former teammate Shazam explained on stream he has tried to contact and help Sick numerous times, and his mental health being an issue even before the drama was revealed to the public.

Only time will tell if Sick is able to salvage his declining popularity, given his community would only support him for so long.  I hope the community understands how hard it is to maintain professional, interpersonal and social status in the esports scene and does their utmost to support SicK without encouraging his destructive tendencies.

Read next: How to grow on Twitch and get followers