Version1 Zellsis: ‘We proved, even with a stand-in, we can compete with the best’

May 28, 2021

by Mitch Reames

Five days into VALORANT’s Masters: Reykjavik, Version1 became the first team from North America or Europe to be eliminated from the tournament. After a surprising run in NA Challengers Finals to qualify, Version1 continued that momentum into Iceland beating Japan’s Crazy Raccoon and Europe’s Team Liquid in the team’s first two matches.

After the first map against NUTURN Gaming in the upper bracket semifinals, Version1 looked set to lock in a rematch with Sentinels in the upper bracket final. It wasn’t meant to be. After beating Nuturn 13-3 in Map 1, Version1 dropped the next two maps in OT. That loss set up a lower bracket matchup with Fnatic, which resulted in the plane ticket home.

“We came here with a stand-in, we beat Liquid, and I felt like Fnatic could have gone either way,” said Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro after the match with Fnatic. “We proved, even with a stand-in, we can compete with the best of the best.”

V1 were put into a tough spot heading into Iceland as Maxim “wippie” Shepelev’s student visa prevented him from traveling with the team after he played a crucial role in the team qualifying. Jamal “jammyz” Bangash, who normally plays with Beastcoast, stepped up in his place.

“If we had wippie here, we would have placed top two easily,” Zellsis said. “Jammyz is really good, he came here last minute, he’s a stud, he played really well for us. But wippie is a CS player, having that CS experience, especially the amount of experience wippie has, that brings a lot to this team that we need on this team. He’s that third voice, he’s the final piece of our team. Him and jammyz are different players, they play the same agent, but they have different playstyles so that was definitely a factor.”

Version1’s losses were about as close as they possibly could have been. In the five maps V1 lost, four went to overtime. Every time a match went past 24 rounds, V1 ended up losing. Following the two OT losses to NUTURN Gaming, the first map against Fnatic again went to OT as V1 dropped three straight OT maps. By Map 2, the team seemed exhausted and Fnatic dispatched V1 easily with a score of 13-6. It was V1’s only map loss not in OT.

In Map 1 against Version1, Fnatic turned the tide with a timely tactical timeout in the final rounds of Icebox.

“We used that timeout to calm things, to settle the nerves,” said Fnatic’s James “Mistic” Orfila after the match. “They don’t run Sage on their Icebox so if they decided to come, we could delay the plant and allow for rotations to come in. We had the idea to keep the Sage wall for the plants because that was good for denying their off-the-plant strategy.”

Version1’s unique post-plant looks have been one of the talks of the tournament. After V1 beat Liquid, Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom pointed to those moments in particular for why Liquid lost that matchup. Fnatic clearly took note and had a counter ready to go. With such close rounds, those moments can be the difference between a win and a loss.

“We kept our cool together, especially in that first map, it got quite tight, the rounds were really close,” Mistic said. “We played well. We were playing off each other, feeding off each other, we were just confident and in the moment.”

Although Version1 were playing with a stand-in, Fnatic’s squad isn’t filled with a ton of experienced veterans. For players like Mistic, Martin “Magnum” Penkov and Domagoj “Doma” Fancev, this was not only the biggest stage of their careers, it was their first LAN ever. Now a week into the tournament, they are only getting more comfortable in the LAN environment.

“It’s not exactly how I expected a LAN environment to feel because there aren’t any fans, but I’m definitely feeling more comfortable now [compared to Day 1],” Mistic said.

The comfort certainly shows. Especially after wins, Fnatic look plenty comfortable on stage as IGL Jake “Boaster” Howlett led the team in choreographed celebrations including his mock-audition for The Voice and, after beating V1, a performance as an airline steward on V1’s upcoming flight home.

“Boaster has always been a fan of creating content and being creative,” Mistic said while smiling. “So we decided to rock a celebration every win we get. Coming into every game with a prepared celebration keeps winning in the backs of our minds, so it’s a good mentality to have. Our manager came up with [the airplane celebration], and he’s an American himself, so he thought it would be funny. It’s just friendly banter, no hate towards V1, they played very well today.”

V1 have unfortunately been on the end of two iconic celebrations as players on Nuturn Gaming pretended to clip off Vanity’s signature cat ears after winning their match. For the first international LAN in VALORANT’s history, the teams certainly haven’t been shy in establishing a tradition of friendly banter. As fans, we’re all fortunate for that.

Next up for Fnatic is a rematch with European rival Team Liquid. Fnatic and Liquid met in both the EU Challengers 2 grand final and the Challengers Finals grand final. Fnatic won once and Liquid won once.

Tomorrow they will settle the rubber match with EU supremacy on the line. The winner will get a chance to play the loser of Sentinels / Nuturn Gaming with the title of VALORANT’s first international champion looming closer.

Lead image credit: Riot Games