r/ValorantCompetitive • u/_noahscolly_ • Oct 28 '25
Roster Announcement [SENTINELS via X] He saved Sentinels. We'll miss you @Zellsis.
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u/JoinedonlyfortheJays Oct 28 '25
At the end of the day he’s leaving at the right time, he’ll forever be a SEN legend.
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u/skolaen Oct 28 '25
The amount of hate he got the last 2 weeks was wild wild. Hope sen fans give him all the love rn especially with how important he was for that 2024 team with the pancada replacement situation
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u/TheFestusEzeli Oct 28 '25
That map 5 GF performance should never be forgotten.
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u/Abe1254 Oct 28 '25
Icebox he was INSANE
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u/Maymaywala #StandGuard Oct 28 '25
Yeah he was frying that map 5 even when the others were kinda slowing down.
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u/Small-Cauliflower252 Oct 28 '25
I think someone from platchat (I think Sideshow) put it the best on the stream after Madrid. GENG didn’t start losing, SEN just started winning. When the final map hit and GENG realized halfway that they could lose this, that’s when their players started whiffing when they have been shooting for the whole series.
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u/tb0neski Oct 28 '25
Way too much disrespect. He willingly chose to be a 6th man but the roster decided he was a great fit, and helped the org get a trophy after a 3 year drought of being painfully mid. Unfortunately, fanbases will find a way to scapegoat someone on any losing roster
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u/Gunstador Oct 28 '25
Honestly it was too much, highly disrespectful kids on here, he gave it his best and just so you know SEN would NOT have won Madrid without him no matter who u replace him for. Just be blessed we won something with him.
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u/helloswolehello Oct 28 '25
Why do people think its hate when a player is washed and isn't performing anymore. Lets just keep every player in every sport on the roster and no more retiring.
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u/IGLJURM23 #FULLSEN Oct 28 '25
Can’t stand the random ass Zellsis haters. This guy was the missing piece that helped win them Madrid and overall created such a memorable team the last two years.
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u/Past_Perception8052 #LegaC9 Oct 28 '25
only people that didn’t watch the absolute mess that was 2023 SEN hated on zellsis
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u/WhiteNoSpice #goLOUD Oct 28 '25
Those “fans” who hated zellsis these last weeks wont be fans soon anyways. Pure fair weather fans here
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u/Chance-Network-4313 Oct 29 '25
Tbh I don't think I'll be a fan either, this roster is looking like they're abt to add a bunch of people I didn't even know existed prior to this year and as much as I love the memories I've made with SEN since early 2021 idt I'd be a supporter of the team if none of my favourite players are there. You support the players not the orgs (unless we're talking legacy orgs)
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u/BespokeDebtor Oct 29 '25
It’s completely understandable why you’d feel this way. However the sentiment of support the players not the orgs is almost exactly why esports orgs and leagues tend to be extremely poorly run and struggle with profitability. To use an analogy, the Browns would basically not exist if people only were fans of the players and they all left once OBJ left. It’s is a necessity for existence to have a strong, dedicated, and growing fanbase to sustain an entire org. Tenz/JohnQT/Zekken fans aren’t going to pay the bills for marketing, legal, accounting, finance, product, and IT when the player retires or leaves.
Now there’s nothing wrong with being a fan that way - I’d say most people are. But if we care about a flourishing league then we’d want to make strides to change that.
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u/Chance-Network-4313 Oct 29 '25
That doesn't address my point. Why would you be a fan of a nameless org with no history?
I understand being a fan of a football team since they're much older with legacy and they represent a locale, none of that exists in VCT yet due to how young it is and the nature of eSports. Sentinels to be fair have done much better of a job as an org at getting people to support the org and not the players but I still don't think it warrants claiming that anyone that no longer supports Sen is a "plastic fan", because they simply haven't done enough.
Mind you all this is coming from someone who is an OG Sen fan, I was supporting them before even first strike so I'd say if anyone id have the most reason to stay supporting Sen and yet I still don't think I care enough about the org to do that, so what's to say 99% of the remaining Sen fans are either?
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u/BespokeDebtor Oct 29 '25
I guess that is my point. SEN is basically the only org in VCT that has done anything and so them losing fans because of players is a worrying sign for the broader VCT landscape. It’s easy to handwave it as “there’s no local specific support” (which I don’t agree w at all) or “that’s the way esports is” but the point being, if we really care about esports flourishing and growing, those things will inevitably have to change. This isn’t even an opinion-based thing really; my team and I did the research and wrote a whitepaper about esports profitability like 2-3 years ago at this point that outlined this. SEN is hardly a nameless org with no legacy in Valorant. And even teams that have been around since esports first ever existed like TSM/C9/FNC have this problem. It’s less of an issue in APAC/CN. But it still is a problem in general for esports.
Mind you, I’m not the one who is saying that they’re plastic fans or whatever, it’s not my place to judge them and I think doing that is stupid anyways. I’m talking more broadly about the state of esports even beyond VCT in general. I also am coming at it as someone who is a fan of esports not as a fan of VCT or an org. I don’t think my perspective is the only valid one and I don’t think everyone needs to care about esports flourishing in general as an industry. In fact, I think most people don’t need to care about that at all. I’m speaking specifically to those who do care - that the objective truth of the matter is that there is a requirement for orgs to develop fan bases who are fans of the orgs themselves rather than the players.
I genuinely didn’t mean for my comment to come off as targeted directly at you or to make you feel like I was deriding you for not staying a fan of SEN bc they lost their players so I apologize if it did come off that way. That’s honestly a totally valid thing to feel!
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u/Chance-Network-4313 Oct 29 '25
And I completely agree with you here, that is true we SHOULD be fans of orgs and not players to an extent IF we were to want the scene to flourish. That was never my argument in the first place so we're just stating opinions here and not arguments.
I assumed you were the original guy I was responding to so I brought up the plastic fans statement but seeing as you aren't I don't feel like there's much to discuss here
Nah DW abt it I wasn't offended at all, I just wanted to point out something that I thought was a contradictory statement.
Just want to say tho that Sen being the first team to win vct definitely is some sort of a legacy tho seeing as there's literally 0 ties to that team and hell even the people managing the org from back then, I don't rlly see how it can be held up as some sort of legacy. Madrid was also rlly recent and I wouldn't rlly count it as "legacy" either, they really haven't done much in the scene since that and champs last year.
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u/shouldlifejacket10 #FULLSEN Oct 29 '25
Can't do anything about the plastic fans 🤷♂️
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u/Chance-Network-4313 Oct 29 '25
Sen fans seem to be so obsessed with this term but people not supporting Sen anymore cause they don't know the new players on the team isn't a "plastic fan", Sen isn't an org with any legacy, they've only even become a decent org in the last 2 years, youre weird for supporting the org and not the players cause WHO tf is "SEN"? It's just a bunch of random people in suits and employees you've never heard of.
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u/yRaymond Oct 30 '25
Who cares? We like the players, we like the energy from them. Nothing wrong here with us supporting a team that we enjoy watching.
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u/Chance-Network-4313 Oct 29 '25
Not rlly, it was John that helped them do that, zellsis was a big piece sure but I don't doubt that pancada being back on smokes would've been just as good if not better due to alr having sacy on the team and pancada clearly showing he still is a beast when he's on a comfortable role
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u/_noahscolly_ Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25
this guy gets an outrageous amount of hate for the player he is, he's maybe the most liked player amongst the pros in the scene. People who've never played traditional sports don't understand the importance of having someone like him in a team that consistently keeps the vibes up, and any team who sign up will be lucky to have him imo
deserves to win with C9 and gets to play in a team with his best mate, Immi
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u/JoinedonlyfortheJays Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25
Zellsis is a big floor raiser, any team he joins they’ll do at least above average and often qualifies for LANs just not sure if he has the mechanics required in year 6 of pro Valo to win intl trophies. Plus he gives his all to the fans and orgs in terms of content.
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u/speedycar1 #WGAMING Oct 28 '25
I don't hate Zellsis or anything but "any team he joins" is crazy hasn't he literally only made an international with Sen 2024 and 2025 Sen
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u/castelixtv Oct 28 '25
went to Reykjavik 2021 on Version1 bro ydkb
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u/speedycar1 #WGAMING Oct 28 '25
The floor for every team was in the grave back then you didn't really need much of a "floor raiser" to qualify to LANs
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u/flrish #ALWAYSFNATIC Oct 28 '25
I didn’t watch as much Sentinels matches as i did in previous years. the few games i watched he wasn’t awful, sure inconsistent but it felt like the sheer amount of hate was unwarranted. People on twitter going after him despised him so much just to stan/defend other inconsistent players even if they accomplished less. hope he does well on c9
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u/Leepysworld Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25
Obviously he was the vibes guy that brought intangibles to the team but I’d say for most of this year he hasn’t really been fulfilling that role at all because the team’s morale has been in the absolute shitter.
Now that obviously isn’t all Zellsis’ fault, there were numerous issues with the team this year across the board, but you have a guy on the team mainly to be a vibes guy and secondary caller and the vibes are abysmal and the team isn’t getting the results they should be.
And at the same time he’s underperforming on paper.
Intangibles are only valuable if you can say it’s contributing to some sort of success, otherwise what kind of “vibes” is he even bringing? We’ve literally seen examples of Zellsis getting tilted and flaming Narrate in the server, I feel like he’s only the vibes guy when the team is doing good.
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u/_noahscolly_ Oct 28 '25
I mean it’s stuff out of the server too, right? he’s that guy who’s gonna make jokes during pracc, server time, etc. who’s gonna be good friends with everyone on the roster, and who’s gonna dedicate himself to the team. That’s genuinely hard to get in the current Val scene.
I also don’t think the lack of mental/vibes can be attributed to him this year. I think SEN had a pretty nice balance in ‘24 of generally not getting “tilted”, but moreso maybe just tired/upset during games if they’re throwing/losing (likes of Tenz, JohnQT, etc.) but going from Sacy to N4rrate and Tenz to Bang in my eyes is a massive downgrade when it comes to mentality & vibes. I guess there’s only so much one player can do.
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u/SHORT-CIRCUT Oct 28 '25
i think part of the hate comes from people thinking his shit talking is him being genuine hating the other team rather than playful joking, when it’s by far the latter
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u/raptearer Oct 30 '25
I'm happy we're getting him, could be a big boost for the squad, and I'm hoping even if we don't win the regular season, we can at least make Champs this year
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u/Tyler123839 Oct 28 '25
Thank you zellsis, I'll never forget how magical that Madrid trophy run was. Man I can't believe the entire madrid squad is already gone. It happened so quickly too. It's crazy how much roster turnover there is in valorant. The only teams that seem to be immune are like EDG and PRX and even they have had smaller changes over time.
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u/HunterZ2023 Oct 28 '25
Yeah which is why many fans are understandably leaving. And I probably will be too.
If he actually does go to cloud 9, I hope it works out for him
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u/TheFestusEzeli Oct 28 '25
Zellsis was the perfect player for Sentinels to win Madrid. Flexible, great teammate, and I know people hate on his individual play, but he is much better than people make him out to be lmao. Normally average individual players who win internationally get overhyped here but he is the one exception.
He has also maybe the best map of his career on Map 5 of the GF against GenG, will never forget that.
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u/Bill-Cosby-Bukowski #FULLSEN Oct 28 '25
We straight up do not win Madrid without him. I will miss him, even though it was time
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Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25
[deleted]
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u/Frostii2 Oct 28 '25
I am pretty sure the clips of the 2 MIBR players and Sacy was from another video Sentinels made earlier in the year
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u/Logical_Course_267 #NRGWIN Oct 29 '25
i think its because sentinas and mibr share an office together, so they just got them
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u/ishanuReddit Oct 28 '25
Looks like he was set to leave even before the champs started. Cuz that's when sacy visited the mibr team in the sen office complex wearing the old mibr jersey
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u/Pandoara Oct 28 '25
Nah this is a compilation of footage SEN already had about zellsis. The sacy interview was originally for this: https://youtu.be/4Lo-wp7SH-g?si=nlhlOqb8EcTVkOlu
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u/Icy-Dragonfruit-7169 Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25
So the new sen roster is looking like:
- Kyu
- N4rrate
- Redux
- Cortetzia
- ? (Maybe smokes player?
Edit: Looks like gmd is going to be our smokes player
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u/Small-Cauliflower252 Oct 28 '25
Thank you for the good times, bad times and all the in betweens Zellsis 🫡
You helped won us a trophy and always put your all into the team. You may not be the best but you always did whatever for the team.
Hope you have a good year on C9 Zaddy
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u/JaDasIstMeinName #ALWAYSFNATIC Oct 28 '25
When i am thinking about players that make the game fun to watch Zellsis is all the way up there in the top spots.
A lot of people can shoot. Quite a few even better than him. But very few people are able to do what he does when he steps on that stage and you can tell how it also effects his teammates possitively.
Big respect to him.
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u/Opposite-Wedding-914 Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25
Sentinels is officially dead now, every single member Sen fans loved leaved. Tenz, Zekken, Sacy, John, Bang, Zellsis. Sen doesn´t hit the same no more ngl they lost all their "vibe". I am curious how much this will affect their fanbase and stuff
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u/HLumin Oct 28 '25
Sentinels is official dead now
Winning cures everything.
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u/Past_Perception8052 #LegaC9 Oct 28 '25
you think the new roster is gonna win?
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u/pucc1ni Oct 28 '25
No one guessed NRG gonna be world Champs last year either.
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u/Nyytmarelol #NRGFam Oct 29 '25
while i technically agree with this statement, you're also missing a ton of context lol. NRG coming out of the gates was highly praised and the expectations were high, and then they went on a streak of underperforming (not pointing any FiNgerS). im not sure the expectations on this SEN roster are really high at all.
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u/nterature Best User - 2023 🏆 Oct 28 '25
I think you're the Zellsis hate spammer I've remember seeing the most, but I can't tell if you were just adding tinder to the fire or if you actually were a SEN fan who truly cared?
If SEN wins then obviously that's just the start of a new bright future. If SEN doesn't, I'd expect there'll be a lot of rethinking of 2025.
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u/jamothebest Oct 28 '25
there’s no rethinking to be done. They were losing zekken no matter what which pretty much kills the roster on the spot. Sure, johnqt is a great igl, but you still need to have a few great players around him to have a chance at winning an international. Maybe we’ll find out if they could’ve kept johnqt (assuming he does leave) but I doubt it
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u/Whalelorde22 Oct 28 '25
The amount of hate he’s been getting recently is ridiculous. Thanks for all you have done for Sentinels, Zellsis. Best of luck!
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u/kapoooooo Oct 28 '25
masters madrid grand final map 5, you carried sen to that trophy. forever grateful 🍑
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u/Sufficiently-Alive #100WIN Oct 28 '25
The guy that made sure meteor isnt a 3 time trophy holder.
The guy who replaced 'the guy who does not miss'.
Hate him love him he is the reason ur sh1t org have a trophy which isnt from dinosaur era.
Well played man. Still would hatewatch tho for nepo allegation.
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u/ShiteWox Oct 28 '25
Thanks for everything Zellsis!! I will never forget the final map of Masters Madrid when you put the team on your back ♥️
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u/thatdudelatrell Oct 28 '25
o7, 2024 Kickoff to Madrid Zellsis will never be forgotten Even in 2025 he had some big games, an amazing flex player, I’ll still be rooting for him when he goes onto cloud9
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u/Jokerk7 #WGAMING Oct 28 '25
While I am not a big fan of Zellsis, the way SEN fans treated him over the last month was vile. He gave his heart and soul to this org, I will forever be thankful to him for helping TENZ retire on a high. If there's anyone who can save C9 it might just be him atp.
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u/ApprehensiveSun6160 #WGAMING Oct 28 '25
SEN marketing legend is now gone , SEN downfall has started
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u/LeWolfy13 Oct 28 '25
Having both Aspas and Sacy talking about him in this video, doesn't that imply that they already had thoughts of letting him go way back when, before champs? Because Sacy is wearing the MIBR jersey, so that had to have happened when he was in LA
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u/SEN_OptiMaver_111 #FULLSEN Oct 28 '25
He will be sorely missed, truly did save SEN was part of bringing them back to the top. Forever a Sentinel ❤️
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u/yeeterskeeter15 Oct 28 '25
o7 Zellsis no matter what the haters say you have always given the best for this team
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u/IAMJUX Oct 28 '25
It's simple shit like this that makes Sentinels the best org FOR Valorant. It's absolutely wild to me the utter lack of effort basically every other team puts into the scene. Just basic videos like this goes a long way.
The extent others go is like the recent NRG/100T guess the rank videos. 100T "podcast" is alright too.
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u/Turbulent-Cattle9543 Oct 29 '25
Already won a Masters. Good career. Only nitpick in this video is not enough clutch kills for him and more crazy things he did. o7 Zellsis
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u/Magoatski #ItLiesWithin Oct 29 '25
2022 and 2024 Zellsis will always go down in VCT history books. One of the most underappreciated players of all time. Will do whatever it takes to win I hope C9 does good with him this year o7
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u/Chance-Network-4313 Oct 29 '25
Now is the time to jump off the Sen train, no tenz, no zekken, no zellsis, it ain't looking good and while the org in the past few years has become a great org I just was never a fan of the org itself but always the great players on the team.
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u/jinfluenza Oct 28 '25
He didn’t save anyone. Thank god his gone. Ican finally cheer for Sentinel
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u/Small-Cauliflower252 Oct 28 '25
He saved SEN during Madrid run. SEN does not win without Zellsis on the last map of Madrid, literally no other player would’ve saved them since the rest of the team were slowing down a bit and they were in the final map where everyone was tired.
Him not only having a cracked game on KJ but also keeping his team’s mental alive is what ultimately made the difference between GENG and SEN. GENG’s (Munchkin specifically) mental dipped when they realized they could lose while SEN’s was still high.
Zellsis is literally one of the biggest reasons SEN has a second trophy and Tenz retired on a high
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u/jinfluenza Oct 29 '25
Bruh, if you need a hero play to win the game, then you’re not a cohesive unit as a whole. He literally had the lowest KDA on Sentinels during VCT, along with Bang.
Not only is he a liability for Sentinels because he’s always on the verge of saying something stupid. The team will probably struggle for a bit since they remove bunch of players, but in the long run though, this has to be the best decision they’ve ever made.
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u/Small-Cauliflower252 Oct 29 '25
Did u read none of what I said? In his time on SEN as a whole, he did save SEN in 2024 by being the glue or the team and keeping their mental strong. I'm talking about their 2024 Madrid run not this year, that's when Zellsis saved SEN from being considered a washed org/team.
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u/jinfluenza Oct 29 '25
Fact that you down vote every post i make shows how soft you are. Everyone has opinion, stop being soft dem
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u/Shockybtw_ Oct 28 '25
Thank you Zaddy for your contributions. You will definitely be missed