Zellsis believes 2025 SEN roster has higher ceiling than previous year

Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro is one of the brightest personalities of VCT Americas. The VALORANT player is a pro, and he's been a staple of Sentinels for some time now. Because of that, Sentinels was able to overcome 100 Thieves in their first match of the 2025 Kickoff tournament.

After the match ended, esports.gg sat down with Zellsis to talk about the series. We also discussed the new members of the roster, how the team has evolved, and of course, the crazy round of now-deleted tweets shared between him and 100T's Boostio.

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"Sentinels often has an adventurous off-season. You guys play a ton of games outside of the main VCT. What are some of the positives and negatives of being so busy during that period?"

Zellsis: "I'll start with just going down a list. I guess the positives would be like, we're building early chemistry, seeing how we play with each other, if we need to do different roles. For us in particular, we did a lot of role changing, even with our core this year, after the last year. So, we needed to do a lot more playing than we did previously.

"Before, we kind of like just clicked together. The roles clicked, we meshed well together with the previous roster. And then with this new one, obviously, we brought in two younger players. We needed a little bit more time. Those are the positives of playing.

"I think the cons of playing so much, you're always playing. You don't really get a lot of time off. I think especially with changes in the meta, you know, with Tejo coming out and everything like that, so early in the season. I think we had like two weeks or something of prep.

"Yeah, I think it was two weeks, we'll just say two weeks. I don't think we took a single day off besides a content day that we had with Riot and Sentinels. And even if we did our own content day with Sentinels, we still scrimmed and practiced, and did everything we would normally do on that singular day.

"So, we've been going pretty hard. I guess that would be the cons. That we're just continuously playing, which could lead to stress, tiredness, burnout, whatever. I'm not going to say that yet though, because I know people are going to be like, oh, Sentinels are already talking about burnout. No, I'm not saying that yet."

"The last match between Sentinels and 100 Thieves, they won. Every other time in VCT Americas, including today, you got the win. What is it about SEN vs. 100T where you guys just have the upper hand?"

Zellsis: "I mean, at this point it's not a rivalry, right? even when they beat us, nothing changed. I think when they beat us, it was the one where we still went to Champs and then they ended up losing. All seriousness, it's fun. It's always fun playing them.

"I think it's just because they've always had good sh*t-talkers on their team and, obviously, we've had sh*t- talkers on our team, you know, I go crazy about it. It's fun, you know, it's competitive. It's competitive sh*t-talk. So, I just think that rivalry being there is just fun. It creates storylines. It creates good things for the fans to talk about or look for."

"Well, speaking of the trash talk. We saw you yell at bang to stand up after a big play early on during Pearl. Obviously that’s because 100T is his former team. I mean, we saw Boostio's tweet where he had someone in your jersey bent over, questionable gestures, things of that nature. But before we hopped in here, I saw you fire back at him with him bent over the table. Talk to me about that

Zellsis: "It's just understanding that you're competitors. It's fun to sh*t-talk, you know? At the end of the day, at some point, if someone gets too hurt or whatever, I'm sure they'll talk about it. We talked about it backstage. We said if you win, what? What do you want?"

I went up to him and I was like yo, I saw your tweet, but just wait bro. I'm not going to reply until after this game. Hopefully we win. I have a tweet and obviously that was my tweet. Let me know when you want me to send your girlfriend my new jersey. Because she was in my old jersey.

"So, that was my tweet, but his idea was bending him over, because he wanted to bend me over after the game if they won. So it goes hand in hand, right? Yeah. Like, if I know you or we're quote unquote friends or whatever the case may be, I'm all for sh*t-talk. It keeps the scene healthy, it keeps fans interacted. I think it's good."

"Absolutely. Let's get into the match now. I’m not going to lie, you guys got picked apart on Split. Eleven rounds straight for 100T to close it out. Tell me about the team huddle after that first map loss and what was said to get everyone ready for map two?"

Zellsis: "I think first map we were just with the first stage nerves with this roster. I mean, obviously we played in the off-season a bit together, but coming to VCT is a whole different feeling. So, we just had to prepare for as much as we could. And I think on that first map, they got away with a couple of rounds that they shouldn't have, which could have given us a little bit of a buffer.

"When you're stringing together rounds in VALORANT, you are just going to keep playing confident and it's very hard when you're the team having to come back. It's very hard to get back into it. I think they played really well. We're playing a new comp, they're playing a new comp, for themselves as well.

"Cryo was feeling it, Asuna was feeling it, eeiu was feeling it. They just have a very good form right now with that team. So, they kind of just slapped us around, but we learned a lot. That was the whole thing with this team, is that we understand we need to play a lot of matches if possible and learn more.

"Because in scrims, you can only learn so much, until you're not put to the test anymore. You're just running things to run them. And obviously in Americas, you don't really scrim against a lot of Tier 1 teams as much as people probably think. So, when you get to matches, you just face things that you've never seen before or you face mental challenges that you need to get over.

"Like you said, I was yelling at zekken and bang to yell and stand up, because obviously I'm doing it, but I need them to do it as well. I need them to know that it's okay to do it after just a round win or you get a 2K or you do something cool.

"You can always stand up, but they always want to be like, no, I want a sick round. I want an Ace, bro. I'm just like, oh whatever. bro. So, I gave up, but they did it on Pearl, they were standing up and they talked and everything. So, it was good."

"Well, speaking of Pearl and the map prior to that, Bind. They ended with the same scoreline. It wasn’t a beatdown like Split was, but you guys got the job done. There was definitely some pressure put on with 100T stringing some rounds together. So, with johnqt having all of last year under his belt, how has his calling improved to ensure you guys make the plays that put games away?"

Zellsis: "To give a little insight, last year, I talked a lot more. With the mid-rounding, because I was in the pack and he was on Sentinel lurking. So, he just gave his early freeze time calls if I wasn't giving an idea. Because I see everything, right?

"When you're in the pack, you see everything. You can see how you need to change defaults. You can see if rushes will work or if someone's punishing you. You can see that. So, I think switching him to the pack this year, his calling is a lot more 'mid-roundy.' He's a very good VALORANT caller. He understands the game, he understands how to call around Ults, he understands all of that.

"So, when he wanted to switch to the pack, we were like, sure, let's run it. We trust you. We will run it. We'll test it. And he's excelled honestly. His calling's amazing. He's shooting, he has more energy, everything like that.

"I think it's really good. We'll definitely have to have a team talk after this match about a couple things. Not going to give away anything, obviously, but we'll have to speak on things. But he's been excellent for sure."

"Lastly for you then, it’s a new year, some new members of the team. Last year, you won Kickoff and won the first Masters. I think it is safe to say everyone misses TenZ and Sacy in their own way. What’s the ceiling of this roster, with N4RRATE and bang taking their place?"

Zellsis: "It hurts me to say this because I love TenZ and Sacy. We did everything together. I accomplished more in my career than I ever had before, with those guys. So, I'll always have a special place in my heart for them. But I think this roster definitely has a higher ceiling if we get everything down.

"I have this thing, where in scrims, if you're really good in scrims, I feel like that's like your highest ceiling potential, if that makes sense. You just have to find it in the matches. Scrim mentality and match mentality is a lot different. Yeah, there's a lot more nerves, a lot more pressure.

"But I think our ceiling is a lot higher with this team. I think we can definitely create a dynasty that we've been looking for. We wanted to do it with last year's roster. Obviously, we got very close. We didn't make Shanghai.

"We were one series away I think, or one map away or something, from making Shanghai. And then obviously we got top four at Champs, losing to EDG and Team Heretics, the finalists. So, we were close. But I think we're still looking for that dynasty run, and I think with this roster we can do it, for sure."

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