Version1’s Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro has been suspended from participating in the first Challengers event after making an offensive remark towards an official at Masters 2.
Read the full ruling: https://t.co/NwBhWT1vPA pic.twitter.com/op5TFvEYeb
— VALORANT Esports NA (@valesports_na) June 11, 2021
VALORANT Champions Tour North America issued a statement over Twitter on June 11 detailing Zellsis’ suspension from the first Challengers event. Zellsis made an offensive and discriminatory remark about a tournament official during Masters 2. Masters 2 was the first international offline event for VALORANT. This remark has resulted in his immediate removal from the first open qualifier and the main event for the stage three VCT Challengers.
Version1 are now faced with another unexpected substitution. Before attending Masters 2, Version1 had to substitute out Maxim “wippie” Shepelev with Jamal “jammyz” Bangash. This was due to a visa issue with Russian player wippie, who was unable to attend the event that took place in Reykjavík, Iceland. Now they will have to play out the first stage 3 Challengers event without another key part of their roster.
Version1 responds to Zellsis’ suspension
After VALORANT Champions Tour NA tweeted about the suspension, Version1 made their own statement. On Twitter, Version1 acknowledged Zellsis’ inappropriate comment during Masters. They stated that Zellsis and the team regret the incident and apologized to Riot Games staff.
Riot has suspended Zellsis for an inappropriate comment at Masters in Iceland. Version1 and Zellsis regret the incident and apologize to Riot staff. We accept Riot’s decision and will be playing with a sub for the first open and closed qualifiers of stage 3 of VCT.
— Version1 (@version1gg) June 11, 2021
“Riot has suspended Zellsis for an inappropriate comment at Masters in Iceland. Version1 and Zellsis regret the incident and apologize to Riot staff. We accept Riot’s decision and will be playing with a sub for the first open and closed qualifiers of stage 3 of VCT,” Version1 tweeted.
While they also confirmed that they would be playing with a substitute during the open and closed qualifier for stage 3, their pick remains to be seen. Jammyz played well for the team during Masters 2 and could potentially come back to the roster. He was initially benched again after Masters.
Zellsis’ girlfriend Katherine “LunarKats” So was removed from TSM’s female VALORANT roster earlier this year for inappropriate past comments, allegedly made several years ago. However, LunarKats openly apologized for these remarks. LunarKats has not since found a replacement home in VALORANT. Verison1 has still not announced Zellsis’ stand-in officially at the time of publication.
