Worlds 2021: What’s Next for 100 Thieves After a Successful Heist?

100 Thieves were able to become the first non-legacy organization in the League of Legends Championship Series to achieve a championship. Given North America’s reputation internationally, the Thieves now look to overturn expectations and deal some damage in international competition.

In the offseason, the team picked up four of the five members of the 2020 roster that placed 5th-6th at the end of the last summer. As it was thought that Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho was an upgrade to Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell, several analysts and experts predicted that they would place better with the former than they did with the latter. In the middle of the spring, they subbed in Tommy “Ryoma” for Tanner “Damonte” Damonte, but it did not make a difference in terms of results. The results were indeed better, but not by much– they finished fourth in the regular season, and ended in fourth place in the Mid-Season Showdown.

Changes for the Summer Season

Before the summer season started, the organization bought out Felix “Abbedagge” Braun from the European organization FC Schalke 04 Esports. Abbedagge was regarded to be one of the better mid laners in Europe, being part of historic runs that the team has had. The team also acquired former Cloud9 coach Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu, known for his creative drafting. The roster and staff change immediately paid off, as 100 Thieves immediately shot up to the top of the standings, and ended the summer split regular season in second place. 

Despite the team’s impressive finish in the regular season, they have had rough patches. When they won, they looked excellent, but whenever they lost, several issues came up. They would have questionable drafts, and even more questionable decision-making in the games. Some analysts also noted that they were rather slow towards the end of the game, where it looked like they expected the enemies to run into them before they could end games. 

Coming into the playoffs, expectations weren’t high due to their rather up-and-down form. After a surprisingly highly-contested series against Evil Geniuses, they got through with a 3-2 scoreline, and no one expected them to put up much of a fight against Team Liquid. They lost another tense series against Team Liquid 2-3, and got sent to the lower bracket against Cloud9. They dealt with Cloud9 rather easily, taking it 3-1. In the 2021 summer split finals, 100 Thieves pulled off a rather unexpected win over a surging Team Liquid, sweeping them 3-0, securing their place as North America’s highest seed.

Do 100T Stand a Chance on a World Stage?

This team is a great example of a group of individuals who are good at their roles but have problems acting as a team. Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho has not been looking like the superstar that he has been on the team in past years, but is still a rather serviceable top laner. Can “Closer” Çelik has been noted to have some rather questionable pathing at times, but usually makes up for it with his teamfight prowess. Abbedagge has been rather streaky historically, as evidenced by his time in FC Schalke 04 and by his time in North America so far. The team’s usual shining light is its bottom lane. Ian Victor “FBI” Huang can be relied on to get leads in the laning phase and to position well in teamfights while dealing the damage that is expected of him. Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun has shown that he has transitioned well into the support role, and his target selection has been impeccable; as long as he is on initiation, he can be expected to start advantageous fights for the squad. 

If the team is able to maintain its rather creative drafts and is able to still have competitive laning phases with some of the world’s best teams, they may have a chance in the team fights where they usually shine. They might be able to pull off another heist after just completing their last one.

 

(Header image via @100Thieves)