Zellsis on feeding into the crowd, finding his role on Sentinels, and facing CN teams at Masters Toronto

Fresh off their second win in the Swiss Stage of VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025 against Bilibili Gaming, Sentinels have locked in their spot in playoffs while earning a well deserved break. So far, the tournament in Toronto has been a redemption arc for the North American fan-favourites after failing to win a single game at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Bangkok 2025, and Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro has been one of the main players spearheading such improvement. With the departure of Tyson "TenZ" Ngo and Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi, this iteration of Sentinels has required Zellsis to step up and become more of a veteran presence for the new additions to the team in Sean "bang" Bezerra and Marshall "N4RRATE" Massey, while maintaining his role as the hypeman for the team.

Following their victory against BLG, Zellsis spoke about navigating these changes, bringing the hype to the crowd in Toronto, and who he wants to face the most in playoffs.

Bringing the fire to Toronto

It is widely known that Zellsis' value doesn't come from his sharpshooting, but how he acts as an emotional leader in and out of the server. In the server, how the "vibe merchant" does his job is on full display every match—almost every round replay sees him standing up, yelling at his team and across the stage, while simultaneously interacting with the fans. With the crowd at the Enercare Centre being just 25 meters away from the players, Zellsis' energy appears to be at all time high.

And I'm just kind of being hyped, being energized, talking to everyone, having fun, feeding into the crowd, the crowd feeding into me, everything like that. And it's just amazing.

When asked about the extra passion he's been bringing to these games, Zellsis stated that he "doesn't want any regrets at any event again," referencing Sentinels' early departure from Bangkok. "I think I was a little out of it in Bangkok," he explains. "I wasn't really energetic. I wasn't really hyped. I wasn't like my usual self. I didn't play into the crowd. But here I told myself I want no regrets at any event again." Clearly, Zellsis has taken the lessons learned in Bangkok to heart and has been able to show a much stronger version of himself and the team as a whole.

Adapting to the departure of TenZ and Sacy

While Zellsis has always been the "vibe merchant" for Sentinels, replacing the legendary players TenZ and Sacy with the young guns bang and N4RRATE has seen Zellsis change his role in the team from last year. Losing a veteran player in Sacy impacted Sentinels heavily since he was the "fixer," as described by Zellsis, the one proposing solutions to problems faced in the server. Now that Zellsis is primarily on the Sentinel role to allow for Mohamed Amine "Johnqt" Ouarid to IGL in the pack, he explains that he has assumed some of Sacy's role and does a lot of freeze time calling. While he used to do more mid-round calling, Zellsis has designated that role to N4RRATE, giving the rising star one of the main voices on the team.

"I can play almost any role to be honest, but Sentinel is definitely a hard role," Zellsis claimed, "I think a lot of it comes with confidence for me. I think there's maps where I look very confident and I'm just taking fights. I'm playing off my util and whatnot. And then there's other maps where I'm kind of like, timid or scared or I'm trying to just stay alive because my team is playing a certain way on the other map and sometimes I get punished for it. I'm still trying to find that balance, but I think for today I played pretty well."

And such confidence showed—Zellsis put up big numbers today on three different Sentinel agents.

VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025

Bilibili Gaming

1

X

2

Sentinels

Swiss Stage, Best of 3 - June 9, 2025 - 4:00PM

13

Icebox

9

5

Sunset

13

9

Lotus

13

Bilibili Gaming

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

whzy

1.06

250

53/47/6

+6

1.13

57.9%

149.0

24%

48%

11

12

rushia

1.04

213

47/45/16

+2

1.04

68.9%

133.8

25%

60%

9

6

nephh

0.88

176

37/41/21

-4

0.90

73.1%

112.8

24%

45%

5

6

Levius

0.67

140

34/35/6

-1

0.97

66.0%

94.6

25%

14%

1

6

Knight

0.58

131

27/42/12

-15

0.64

69.7%

90.9

28%

20%

1

4

Sentinels

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

zekken

1.26

264

56/38/13

+18

1.47

78.6%

162.4

29%

75%

15

5

Zellsis

1.07

203

45/38/17

+7

1.18

74.4%

130.2

18%

63%

5

3

Johnqt

0.96

174

37/39/24

-2

0.95

78.1%

114.9

24%

67%

6

3

bang

0.83

150

34/38/20

-4

0.89

71.4%

98.3

36%

36%

4

7

N4RRATE

0.81

169

37/45/13

-8

0.82

69.5%

110.9

24%

31%

4

9

Running the Chinese gauntlet

Sentinels have only been up against Chinese teams this tournament, playing Wolves Esports for their opening match, and Zellsis has been loving every second of it. "The Chinese region is crazy," he exclaimed, "I love playing them. They're very strong."

Whyz just satchels on my wall and quick scopes me, and I was like, "holy sh*t this guy's an animal."

The last time Sentinels faced a Chinese team prior to Toronto was at VCT 2024 - Champions 2024, where they were sent to the lower bracket by EDward Gaming, the eventual champions. To take his revenge, Zellsis asserts that he wants to face XLG Esports the most in playoffs: "We'll send them to lowers and then we run the Chinese gauntlet. We're taking out our anger on them."

Sentinels will be back in action after a couple days when the playoffs start. Will XLG heed Zellsis' call and pick Sentinels as their opponent in the draw show, and if so, can Zellsis and his team complete their revenge against the Chinese region? Stay tuned to THESPIKE.GG to watch it all unfold.

Banner image credits: Stefan Wisnoski/Riot Games