The VALORANT rivalry between North American teams Sentinels and 100 Thieves has always been hot, but it reached unhinged levels just one week into the 2025 season. After some spicy photos hit the timeline this past weekend though, the two organizations asked their outspoken stars to tone it down.
Still, those photos will be seared into our memory for some time.
Sentinels and 100T “Requested” The Images Be Taken Down
Prior to the highly anticipated match between Sentinels and 100 Thieves at VCT Americas, 100T’s sparkplug in-game leader Kelden “Boostio” Pupello posted a wild couple of photos on X. This included one of someone bent over in front of him wearing Sentinels’ Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro’s jersey, with the caption “Banging @Sentinels today.”
However, it was Sentinels that got the last laugh, defeating 100 Thieves in three maps and knocking them down to the lower bracket of the VCT Americas Kickoff event. After the match, Boostio willingly posed in a similar bent-over position for Zellsis, who posted the image onto his Twitter account.
Eventually, both images were taken down, causing some on reddit to speculate that Riot forced the players to delete the photos. Some even claimed that both Zellsis and Boostio were fined for their tweets, but the Sentinels star has denied that speculation.
On X, Zellsis said “the internet [is] spreading misinformation as usual. I was not fined for that tweet, nor do I think Boostio was. The tweets were definitely out of pocket so Riot and our orgs politely requested we take them down.” Zellsis previously was fined by Riot Games back in 2023 for making a lewd gesture while on camera.
Update, January 21, 2025: Riot Games confirmed to Insider Gaming that neither Boostio nor Zellsis were fined.
Should Zellsis and Boostio have received fines for their photos? Let us know down below and on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming esports, check out the news that Genshin Impact’s publisher has been fined $20 million for lootboxes.
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