[EXCLUSIVE] “This win means everything for us” SEN Zellsis on winning VCT Americas Kickoff

Valorant

4 Mar

Foo Zen-Wen

Following Sentinels' victory at the VCT Americas Kickoff Grand Finals over LOUD, Strafe Esports received the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with Sentinels flex and hype man Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro.

“We wanted to show that we were the best team in Americas”

Zellsis joined the Sentinels roster at the end of 2023, initially announced as a sixth man for the roster. However, over the course of the off-season, as Sentinels practiced in events, Zellsis found himself slotted in more and more.

He eventually becoming the permanent fifth for the roster over former world champion Bryan "pANcada" Luna. His addition proved to be divine providence as Sentinels went on to win the event with exceptional teamwork and synergy.

[Interviewer] How are you feeling? You guys must be so pumped but also exhausted. How’s the team feeling?

Very, very good actually. I think we’re really tired, but also really happy. We put in a lot of time, so, I think we’re really tired but really happy. We’ve accomplished what we came out to do at the start of Kickoff. We said that we wanted to show that the off-season time we put in was not a fluke and I think we did that. We’re pretty happy.

Playing Kickoff: A Test like No Other

Losing their opening series of Kickoff against LOUD, Sentinels proceeded to play 5 more Bo3s just to qualify for Madrid. Their group was arguably the group of death, with LOUD, Leviatán, and 100 Thieves. Despite that, Sentinels persisted, taking down each in turn.

They faced NRG, the superteam that many considered to be the frontrunners for not just the event, but to represent Americas best internationally, taking them down in a closely contested series. Then they had their rematch against LOUD in the finals, again the series going the distance to 5 maps.

At no point was Sentinels' run smooth going, and yet they showed grit and a solidity in their performance that ultimately delivered for them.

"Now we need to go international and show that we can compete internationally"

[Interviewer] I wanted to ask, having lost to LOUD in the opening series, and now not only getting the rematch but the revenge as well – what does this win mean for you, beating LOUD and winning Kickoff? What does it mean for you? What does it mean for Sentinels?

For me personally, beating LOUD is like everything. It’s also like the nail in the coffin that it’s also in the finals of Kickoff, it’s for like 3 points towards Champions; it’s like everything coming together, so this win feels really good. I’ve never beaten LOUD before, so it’s a good feeling to beat LOUD, it’s a good feeling we did it in finals, we did it in 5.

It was a grind, it wasn’t easy, we showed a lot of resilience, had really good practice. We got the three points towards Champions, which I’ve never been. So, that’s like another stepping goal for us. This win means everything for us. We wanted to show that we were the best team in Americas, and I think we showed that today.

Even though the series was as close as it was, we still came out on top, and I think we won that crown, we won that title.

[Interviewer] Not to be nitpicky, but considering your off-season practice, is this what you would consider a satisfying run? A first showing performance from you guys? Or would you consider yourself more of a perfectionist?

I think for me, I’m more of a perfectionist, to be honest. Like obviously you have to celebrate your wins, you have to celebrate even your little wins. Like this is a big win, like this isn’t a little win, this is a really, really big win. But like, for me, it’s like nothing is ever done. There’s always work to be done, there’s always room to improve.

It’s like we need to keep going to the drawing board and making sure we’re not like slipping up. Keep going to the drawing board and making sure we have new things – things we’re adapting to, stuff like that. So as much as I enjoyed this win – and I’m going to enjoy it for the next week before we go to Madrid – we still need to go back to the drawing board.

We need to get ready for Madrid now. I always say these things where like: ‘Ok, we’ve done the first part of the work, now we need to do the second part.’ The first part was winning Kickoff, showing the goal we had of coming in and showing everyone: we were or wanted to be the best Americas team.

Now we need to go international and show that we can compete internationally with the world in Madrid against these other talented teams. And it’s not going to be easy. So, we need to keep our heads down and keep doing what we’ve been doing.

[Interviewer] Awesome to hear. You speak about playing internationally, is there a particular team you’d like to test your new strength against?

[Grinning] Yeah, it’s not really a team. I really want to play against Heretics because I’m a big fan of Benjyfishy. I’ve been watching him for a while now, and I think his addition to Heretics and him coming from Fortnite and becoming like the good VALORANT player he is – I think it’s special. So, I’m kind of excited to play him. Not so much the team, just him, you know?

But if I were to say a team, I think I’d like to play Paper Rex again. I think people kind of discredit our win in Korea, the AfreecaTV league, because they were like ‘oh, PRX wasn’t really trying, and Sentinels was putting in all this time’ and ‘Sentinels care so much more.’

So, I kind of want to play PRX again and show that we actually do own them. So that would be a good feeling to rematch them again in something more important.

[Interviewer] That would be an insane game to watch. Speaking on today’s game as well, how did you feel about the map veto as well? Were you pretty happy with the maps that you got?

Yeah, I’d say I was pretty happy. In a best of five, there’s only […] I think we were team B, so they get the first ban. So, we kind of knew what the maps’ order were going to be. So, we were pretty happy with it.

We were kind of shocked by their pick actually. Their first pick, they picked Sunset I think, so that was kind of a shock. Kind of a surprise. And obviously we needed to open with a win on Sunset. And we came through and did that.

But then again, our Sunset […] we messed up a couple rounds here and there, due to either post-plants or we’re missing utility here and there or something like that. So, we got to clean that up. But I think the vetoes went about how we expected, besides the first map surprise.

[Interviewer] Of course, you also banned Ascent. We know that LOUD likes to play the Phoenix on that map. Were you not confident facing them? Even though EG yesterday kind of showed that that comp is fallible?

I think for us it was more so about getting our strengths in order for a best of five. Best of fives are not easy at all, it’s a really long day, it’s a really gruelling day. Every map could go OT, you could get 13-2d on your picks, their picks, whatever it may be. So, I think the biggest thing for us was just playing strong picks.

And Ascent, we’ve shown promise on it, we’ve put in a lot of time on it. Again, it’s another thing we need to go back to the drawing board, check all our boxes, make sure we’re doing all the things right on the maps. And historically, LOUD has always been a really good team on that map, no matter what roster they’ve had, no matter what comp they run.

They’ve always been able to adapt, and they’ve always been able to pick apart their opponents on that map, very easily. Like Saadhak is a very good IGL, so, it is really hard to go onto a map like that where he’s so very well-known for his abilities.

Even though EG have shown that they counter-stratted them, or anti-stratted them, it’s still not an easy task. I’ve said this before, VALORANT is very hard to anti-strat. Even though you do it, things can go wrong.

I think for us, we just didn’t want to focus on that, you know? We really wanted to focus on us this best of five, play out the rounds, play out the map. And make sure, if we needed to go to five maps, we did, and we showed that today.

Sixth Man Turned Indispensable

Bringing in the 'x' quality to a team, Zellsis speaks on the intangibles he brings to a roster and the impact it has had on the Sentinels roster throughout their run.

"I might not always be able to shoot my gun, but as long as I am being the best teammate I can be [...] I think I'm doing my job."

[Interviewer] This is also the second time you’ve joined Sentinels. You’ve spoken before, quite at length on stream, the kind of energy that you bring, the loud comms, and of course the performances that you bring, the flexibility. Can you speak yourself, a statement, on what you think you bring to the Sentinels roster? What’s the package that ‘Zellsis’ offers?

Obviously, lots of people say things that I do or don’t do as a player. But the things that I will always bring: I will always be a selfless teammate, I will always make sure my utility is good, I always focus on that. I might not always be able to shoot my gun but as long as I am being the best teammate I can be, the best util I can throw for my young guys, to go out there and shoot, I think I’m doing my job.

I think in the series, we won both maps, and then Icebox got a little tense, obviously. They won a 11-13. We messed up a couple rounds here and there, and then they won another map after that on our Bind. In which they ran the Phoenix, Breach, KAY/O comp, which caught us off guard a bit. But I think those two maps were pretty tense.

And then after we went outside, before Lotus, we’re just like, ‘let’s have fun, it doesn’t matter if we win or lose, as long as we’re playing and really vibing, getting the energy going, stuff like that. And I think for me, not to toot my own horn, because it was a team win, my guys carried on Lotus, it was all them.

For me, it was, I came in and I was yelling. I was just yapping, I was yelling, I was being a vibe merchant. I think we really needed that to let loose and kill the stress and the tension within the server. So, that was the big thing I focused on. Every round I was yelling, standing up, just being obnoxious you know?

Making sure that everyone wasn’t really thinking about the map, they were kind of just focused on their own gunplay. Focus on what Amine was calling, focus on stuff I’m saying. Everyone was just doing their checkbox, while I was just pulling them out of that tense situation. And I think that’s the biggest thing that I bring.

I think a lot of people underrate that personality in a team. Sometimes it gets too stressful, and you just, you feel like you’re drowning in a long series. You know, we were up 2-0 and then we were down 2-2. And man, it was like we were just drowning to pull ourselves back up through the series. You just need someone to yell down the mic, just break that tension. So, that’s how I’d say it.

[Interviewer] Qck seems to have a tendency to run Phoenix at this event. Is this something that threw you guys for a loop a little? Moving away from the dive compositions with Raze and Jett and more flash composition with Phoenix, Breach, Kayo, that sort of thing. Was this something that was more of a struggle to adapt to?

Yeah, for sure. It was definitely a thing where it was like where you had to adapt within the game because obviously, we had no VOD on it. And they knew that coming into Kickoff, they could play crazy things like that and get away with it. But I didn’t expect them to be able to play it to the level that they did.

They’ve really shown that they can just throw in Phoenix on like a map with KAY/O. I mean look at their comp, they played it on every single map and I feel like them making Madrid running one singular comp throughout the whole tournament is like, that is astonishing.

Because they’re going to be able to go into Madrid and they’re going to be able to play like, who knows. I’m expecting them to be playing like 2 or 3 different comps on different maps. I don’t believe they’re going to be running this same comp. Especially with Saadhak as the IGL, I’m sure he has stuff up his sleeves, and he wanted to hide a lot of things.

But they just looked like a well-oiled machine with the Phoenix, everything they did, it just seems like they were really together. They were really AP in the sense that in VALORANT, you just run around and take fights, and they did that with their flashes.

They had six flashes, seven if you include Omen Paranoia – Breach, KAY/O and Phoenix. So, I mean they just commed to perfection and just ran around and abused the game.

And Saadhak has always been good at that, you know. He used the Judge and all that stuff. So, it’ll be interesting to see if they either run the same comp in Madrid or if they have something else, but I think they’ll have something else.

[Interviewer] Also, when we spoke with Kaplan, he actually preferred it that you guys didn’t dominate through your Kickoff run, but rather you were taking some hits and giving some hits in return. And getting a lot of reps. I wanted to get your opinion, is this something you agree with? Obviously for you, it does mean more games played.

I mean, obviously everyone wants to win 13-0, both maps. Like that is an ideal world. But in an ideal world, you don’t learn right? It’s like, it’s when you lose or games are close, you’re learning. You’re learning what works, you’re learning what doesn’t work, you’re learning how to play.

And I think the biggest thing for us is that we’ve played so many maps, we’ve played so many rounds. We went through lowers; we went through Play-Ins. We did all these things, we went five maps against a great team in LOUD, it’s all learning. So, its all good.

Even though its as close as it is, and my gosh, it’s taken years off my life probably, I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re just getting better and better each game we play. We lost against LOUD in the first series of Kickoff, and then we’ve shown every series that we were just coming back slowly and surely and improving every single series.

So, no matter if we went through Playoffs beating LOUD and then we went though uppers and then got qualified or if we went the route we did, I’m just very happy with what we did and what we learned. I think this was really good for us, we’re going to have a lot of VODs to watch, we’re going to be able to talk about a lot of things, go over a lot of comms and stuff like that.

I do appreciate the journey that we put ourselves through. Rather than just kind of cruising past. I don’t think you really […] it’s always nice to cruise because you know, you feel on top of the world, but right now it feels so good, to put in all the work you do, and you win like this. You worked really hard, and it just feels good.

Qualifying for Madrid

Despite lifting the Americas crown for Kickoff, the biggest prize for Sentinels was their ticket to Madrid that they punched yesterday after beating NRG. During the interview, we questioned Zellsis his feelings on succeeding on that front, as well as his expectations heading into VALORANT's first international event of the year.

"The goal is always to win but we don't need to rush to the finish line"

[Interviewer] I also wanted to ask you yesterday, but I didn’t manage to catch you. How did it feel to qualify for Madrid and beating NRG? Because that was obviously the big win. Today obviously feels really great, but yesterday, for the first time since 2021, you’re heading to an international event uninvited.

Yeah, it was just kind of a stepping stone. Yesterday we won, felt absolutely amazing. Obviously, we have our SEN fans who expected us to win but I feel like the majority of the community was like ‘oh, NRG superteam’ and ‘Chet anti-strat’, stuff like that. ‘They’re gonna just run over SEN.’

But we knew we were confident. We put in the work, we put in the time. They’re still a very good team, again another series that wasn’t easy. They were shooting back. But it felt good. It felt good to beat them and to qualify.

Bringing Sentinels back on the map. Us as players are coming on the map. Johnqt was in Tier 2 last year. Sentinels didn’t really have a good year last year. I flunked on C9 with all our runs. So, feels really good to make another international event with the way we did.

[Interviewer] Awesome. Final question, do you have any expectations heading into Madrid? Expectations for yourself, expectations from the team?

I mean, we’re probably going to have pressure for sure. The first series we play is probably going to be a little bit tough, I think we’re still going to come out on top. We’re very good about checking ourselves nowadays, especially after the LOUD loss. We really handled coming back and putting ourselves through mentally.

But obviously the goal is always to win but we need to take it series by series, map by map. We don’t need to rush to the finish line, we can take our time, we can learn, we can improve, and I think as long as we’re doing that and as long as we’re having fun, we’ll win.

I think those are going to be the main goals for us and hopefully we have fun playing VALORANT and we pull out a trophy in the meantime.

[Interviewer] Thank you very much Zellsis, I’ll let you get some rest. Best of luck in Madrid and hopefully I get another chance to talk to you.

Sentinels have won VCT Americas Kickoff and are now going on break. They have qualified for VCT Masters Madrid. Stay tuned on Strafe Esports to see the schedule as well as the upcoming matchups.

Follow all the VCT 2024 action on Strafe.

As an additional bonus, you can catch the VOD for the interview on our new YouTube channel.

Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

[EXCLUSIVE] “There will be a lot of changes.” Paper Rex Monyet on going into VCT Masters Madrid.

Valorant Primordium Bundle: Skins, Price, Release Date and More.