Sentinels may be out of Valorant Champions, but they did not go quietly. Responding to some controversy regarding Brazilian teams, Zombs called out the entirety of the Brazil Valorant region. Brazilians are now furious and are looking to get Zombs banned.
As Champions have been progressing, we have seen a couple of competitive rulings against Brazilian teams. Keyd Stars were caught using an illegal invulnerable Cypher camera on breeze, resulting in a do-over of map 3 and match win for Ascend.
Shameless smh, every cypher player knows not to use this.
— BabyJ (@BxbyJ_) December 3, 2021
Following up Keyds mishap, Furia esports were taken out of their match up against Sentinels for a full 15-minute technical pause, in order to investigate a potential jump exploit.
This, however, was proven to be a legal technique, but the sudden pause affected Furias momentum and cost them their match against Sentinels. The resulting controversies created a rift between Brazilian and non-Brazilian players. With the Brazilian players calling the rulings unjust and unfair, and players from other regions bashing the teams for using or attempting the use of exploits.
Team Sentinels Involvement
Team Sentinels, who greatly benefited from their opponent's forced pause, had little to say at first and enjoyed their win. But as players started to question their win. ShahZam of sentinels decided it was time to joke on the matter, commenting “should have called a tech pause” on Brazilian team Viking's loss against Gambit, referencing the technical pause from Sentinels match against Furia.
This enraged the Brazillian community, with several fans and creators coming after the pro, including Valesports_br caster Gustavo Melão who commented: “your joke antagonizes an entire region/country and fuels an already shitty situation. We should be the grown-ups in the room”.
your joke antagonizes an entire region/country and fuels an already shitty situation. We should be the grown ups in the room
— Gustavo Melao #VALORANTChampions (@melaogustavo) December 4, 2021
Zombs Joins the Fight
Then as if things weren't heated enough, Sentinels Zombs came to ShahZam's rescue, and poured gasoline on to the fire by commenting “can't wait to beat your S*** region again” on Gustavo Melão's response.
cant wait to beat your shit region again
— zombs (@zombs) December 4, 2021
This caused the already irritated Brazilian Valorant community to explode. Brazilian players immediately started calling for Zombs head, demanding he'd be punished or banned accordingly.
Furias Co-CEO Andre Akkari lead the charge by commenting ”As co-CEO of FURIA esports and Brazilian, I truly would like to see this kind of behavior be punished accordingly. It can not happen! Esports is about respect, passion, love. Disrespect 220 million people, a lot of them living in poverty, is unacceptable.”
As co-CEO of @FURIA esports and Brazilian I truly would like to see this kind of behavior be punished accordingly. It can not happen! Esports is about respect, passion, love. Disrepect 220 million people, a lot of them living in poverty is unaceptable. https://t.co/fAOYTrlH3H
— andre akkari (@aakkari) December 5, 2021
Zombs paid little mind to the demands and continued to poke at the hornet's nest, by commenting “Brazil need to do less typing more playing”. Infuriating the Brazilian community even further.
Brazil need to do less typing more playing
— zombs (@zombs) December 5, 2021
A Healthy Dose of Karma
Riot avoided commenting on the matter, and no official punishment of Zombs was discussed further. However, as champions continued, Sentinels found the resulting Karma of Zombs toxicity on their own. Loosing their matchup against team liquid on day 4, and then getting eliminated out of champions by Argentinian Team Krü.
Winning one for their Brazilian neighbors, Team Krü relished in their victory, tauntingly waving goodbye to Zombs in a post game interview.
Everyone send kisses to @zombs on the way home Have a good sleep zzzombnation pic.twitter.com/WyRxdFFl10
— KRU Esports (@KRUesports) December 6, 2021
What's the Takeaway
Despite his extremely toxic commentary, some have come to Zombs defense. Claiming Brazilian players needed to be called out on their questionable plays. However, While Keyd's Cypher play against Ascent may have been in poor taste and straight up illegal, it might be a little overkill to call an entire region “s***”.
