Version1’s Zellsis says "there's no pressure for us" facing Team Liquid next

Masters: Reykjavík has started, and North American fans got their first look at one of the two NA teams that qualified for the tournament today.

Version1 and Sentinels are the two teams that qualified for the first international LAN tournament in Iceland, which combined with League of Legends' MSI has been lovingly dubbed “IceLAN” by social media.

NA’s first match at Masters saw Version1 face off against Japanese team Crazy Raccoon. Version1 beat Crazy Raccoon 2-0, in two close maps.

A standout performance came from Erik “penny” Penny, who made himself an absolute danger with the Operator. Many NA fans commented on social media that he is the best Jett in the world, and his performance against Crazy Racoon is their case and point.

Read more: Fnatic’s Magnum on first Masters game: 'I felt more comfortable on stage than at home'

Map 1 was a close call, ending in Version1’s favor 13-11. Version1 started the match looking strong, only dropping one point in the first seven rounds, but Crazy Raccoon started picking up the pace just before switching sides, and a struggle for the lead ensued up until the end of the match.

Part of the problem for V1 was Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom. Munchkin is no stranger to LAN events since he came from the Overwatch League, where he played for the Seoul Dynasty and the Boston Uprising.

“I think Munchkin is a very confident player. He plays with confidence in his aim, and I think that's really good, especially on LAN. It kind of just caught us off-guard a little bit.” Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro said after the match.

Even though an abnormally long tactical pause delayed the second map, V1 was able to get a head start by taking nine out of the 12 rounds in the first half.

Just when it looked like it was going to be a runaway score, Crazy Raccoon started creeping up on their lead. V1 started losing rounds and losing momentum, especially after they switched sides.

Crazy Raccoon tripped up V1 after the switch, taking several rounds from them in order to close the gap. In the end, V1 took the map 13-10, sending Crazy Raccoons to fight their way through the lower bracket.

On Tuesday, Version1 will play Team Liquid, who are favorites to win the match and potentially the entire tournament.

“There’s no pressure for us,” Zellsis said. “We qualified [for Masters] when no one thought we could, we came here with a stand-in, we won our first match with a stand-in, and there’s no pressure on us … I think it’s a bad scenario for them if they lose.”

Read more: Vanity, Zellsis react to qualifying for Masters with Version1

Jamal “jammyz” Bangash is the stand-in for V1, and according to Zellsis, they had a limited amount of time to practice with him before heading into the match against Crazy Racoon.

“We had a week, if that, [to practice with jammyz]. It was really hard to get scrims before Iceland because teams were taking breaks. Then we came to Iceland and the conditions from the PC and the internet and such weren’t that great. So we tried to get as many LAN scrims as we could. So we had maybe a week-and-a-half with him.”

Maxim “wippie” Shepelev isn’t competing with his teammates at Masters due to visa issues, as was announced by coach Ian “Immi” Harding a few weeks ago. Wippie is a more aggressive player than his replacement, but jammyz has worked out well for the team so far, and it seems like V1 are happy with his performance in this match.

“I think he’s very skilled and we can rely on him, like we can rely on wippie, and I don’t think it’s going to change much,” Zellsis said. “His personality fits the team. We’ve played with him before.”

The next matches will be exciting ones for both EU and NA fans. The regional battle commences tomorrow with Version1 vs Team Liquid at 4:30 p.m. ET followed by Sentinels vs. Fnatic at 7 p.m. ET.

Lead image credit: Riot Games