Former Cloud9 Valorant player Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro has shed light on his decision to join Sentinels as a substitute, despite the fact that he had offers from plenty of other VCT teams.
The 25-year-old was announced on Thursday as Sentinels’ newest Valorant player, joining the team as their backup option ahead of the 2024 VCT season.
Zellsis is no stranger to Sentinels, having played for the team as a stand-in at the end of 2022 in the last-chance qualifier for Valorant Champions. But the decision to commit to a VCT team as a sixth man — after the requirement that teams had to have a minimum of six players was removed — came as a surprise to many as he had acquitted himself well on Cloud9 in the 2023 season.
Speaking on his stream after his unveiling as a Sentinels player, Zellsis revealed that he “kind of regrets” not joining the team at the start of the season. He also mentioned that the financial hardships that some esports organizations are currently experiencing made him choose a stable project, even if that means he won’t be playing as much.
“I had a lot of offers to compete everywhere, NA, APAC, and EMEA,” he said. “Very good offers on very good teams. Some teams were championship-ready teams, others were bag teams, like a lot of money.
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“When I joined franchising, I wanted to stay with that org and retire under that org if possible. I think with Sentinels I can do that.”
Zellsis went on to say that Sentinels will help him build his brand and that there will be a strong emphasis on content creation. “That is not saying I’m retiring,” he insisted. “I’m not retiring. I want to compete. Sentinels know I want to compete.”
Zellsis became Sentinels’ second signing of the off-season, following the arrival of Mouhamed ‘johnqt’ Ouarid from M80 as the team’s new in-game leader. Jimmy ‘Marved’ Nguyen, whose contract expired at the end of the season, is expected to move to a new team.
Keep track of all the changes in the Valorant scene with our off-season rostermania tracker.