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Sentinels Valorant pro player Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro has been unbanned from Twitch 12 hours after his suspension. He was allegedly banned from the streaming platform for using what Twitch believed was a “hateful slur.” However, the pro player denied the allegations and took to social media to record his disbelief. On 17th August, right after finding that he was banned on Twitch, Zellsis took to Twitter to start a “#FreeZellsis” trend. Following this, fans and many from the Valorant community extended their support to the player.
Why was Zellsis banned on Twitch?
Initially, Zellsis tweeted, “WHAT THE F***?” to a StreamerBans announcement and later posted the clip in question that could have led to his ban. In the clip, Zellsis was the only one alive on his team on attack and was caught in a 1v1 situation. However, he ended up killing the enemy Raze and said “F*** it.” He believed Twitch had mistaken his profanity for a homophobic slur and issued the ban.
He wrote, “I got banned for "hateful slurs or symbol" so I assume it was for saying f*** it and twitch took it as me saying the other F word, just like shanks/prod. It wasn't cause I was shirtless or streaming anime. #FreeZellsis.”
Explaining this further, Jake Lucky, esports personality and co-owner of Full Squad Gaming, stated that he spoke with Zellsis regarding the ban. He wrote, “I asked Zellsis why, he says it's possibly the "f*ck it" ban going around Twitch, it has happened to both Shanks and PROD previously. Streamers say "f*** it" and Twitch automated system confuses it with the homophobic f slur. Shanks was quickly unbanned, Prod had to serve the ban.”
After the initial suspension for over 12 hours, Zellsis has been unbanned on Twitch.
As pointed out by Zellsis, streamer Connor “PROD” Moran faced a similar issue on the streaming platform in the month of July. However, his ban was severely debated. It was alleged that he muttered the homophobic f-slur under his breath but his fans refuted the allegations by stating that the streamer said “f*** it.”
Valorant streamer Ryan "Shanks" Ngo was also reportedly hit with the ban hammer by Twitch on the same lines and was quickly unbanned.
Notably, Zellsis was suspended by Riot Games from the North American Valorant Champion Tour’s (VCT) third stage open qualifiers and the main event in 2021. Riot revealed that the player made offensive and discriminatory remarks about a tournament official on 28th May 2021 at VCT Masters Two Reykjavík.
Following this, Zellsis issued a public apology on Twitter. He stated, “I want to apologize to Riot staff for making an inappropriate remark in Iceland. I take responsibility for my actions and will learn from this mistake. I’m sorry to my teammates for putting them in this position. Will be taking a few days off social media. I will be better.”
However, in the case of his Twitch ban, given that he was unbanned quite quickly, it is safe to assume that the initial ban was a mistake on Twitch’s part. Zellsis also only recently got verified on Twitter days before the NA VCT Last Chance Qualifier.
