“It was like the skies parted, like the clouds parted, and like everything was made for us to win the tournament at that point.”

This was how 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #8 bang Sean Bezerra Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk ' head coach, Sean “ seangares ” Gares, described their 2-0 win over Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #9 Xeppaa Erick Bach runi Dylan Cade moose Kaleb Jayne vanity Anthony Malaspina OXY Francis Hoang in the North America: Last Chance Qualifier. 100 Thieves won seven straight maps to win the tournament, beating out favorites like The Guard The Guard Inactive JonahP Jonah Pulice trent Trent Cairns neT Michael Bernet valyn Jacob Batio tex Ian Botsch , Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 TenZ Tyson Ngo Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid Sacy Gustavo Rossi , and Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #9 Xeppaa Erick Bach runi Dylan Cade moose Kaleb Jayne vanity Anthony Malaspina OXY Francis Hoang to lock in NA's last spot at Champions.

It hasn't been the easiest road, though. The team's last international appearance was all the way back in 2021's Masters Berlin where they managed a top four finish — albeit with an almost entirely different roster — but failed to qualify for Champions. This was followed by the loss of two of their core players: steel and nitr0 , who were replaced by Inspire and ec1s , the latter being a British import. These, however, were short-lived signings, as all it took were two lost series in the qualifiers of Stage 1: Challengers to Cloud9 and The Guard before the team let them go.

100 Thieves Esports
@100T_Esports
Today, we have made the difficult decision to release @BxbyJ_ & @ec1s_, effective immediately, as we continue to build for the future.

We would like to thank Adam and Hunter for their contributions to #100T VALORANT and we wish them both the best moving forward.
17:55 PM · Feb 21, 2022 ·
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In March, 100 Thieves made the decision to sign Sean “ seangares ” Gares as their new head coach. At the same time, they also brought on Michael “ Mikes ” Hockom and Daniel “ ddk ” Kapadia to round out the coaching staff as an assistant coach and general manager respectively. It took five days for more changes to roll in: Spencer “ Hiko ” Martin switched from professional play to content creation, and Ethan “ Ethan ” Arnold was benched. At this juncture, the team was in shambles, with their most experienced players having left, and 100 Thieves had to rebuild from the ground up.

This didn't faze them.

One of the things seangares and his coaching staff really focused on while forming the new roster was team bonding. The squad came together seamlessly. Peter "Asuna" Mazuryk and Sean "bang" Bezerra were already good friends and enjoyed playing together, making for an obvious foundational pair. Over the course of the next few weeks, the entire roster took shape, with the addition of William "Will" Cheng, Brenden "stellar" McGrath, and Derrek "Derrek" Ha.

100 Thieves' new roster 100 Thieves' new roster get ready to prove themselves. (Photo courtesy: 100 Thieves)

100 Thieves also started participating in non-VCT tournaments such as the Knights Monthly #1 and BoomTV Proving Grounds, something they'd abjured before. Despite not finishing in the top three at any of these, they were met with a mixture of hope and skepticism by the Valorant community.

Their first real trial by fire came in the form of the North America Stage 2: Challengers event, where two slots for Masters Copenhagen were on the line. During Open Qualifiers #1, they were eliminated thanks to two losses to TSM TSM North America Rank #12 seven Johann Hernandez gMd Anthony Guimond sym Tyler Porter POISED Kevin Ngo aproto Alex Protopapas . However, in the second open qualifier, they blazed through the bracket to be the first team that qualified. In the group stage, they got their revenge against TSM and defeated Stage 1 Challengers victor The Guard both in 2-0 fashion, making it to the playoffs.

Their first match in the playoffs was a close-run affair where they beat FaZe Clan FaZe Clan Inactive POISED Kevin Ngo mummAy Anthony DiPaolo TiGG Tanner Spanu BABYBAY Andrej Francisty supamen Phat Le in a series that ran to all three maps. XSET XSET Inactive was their next opponent, who trounced them 2-0 and pushed them into a lower bracket rematch against FaZe. This time, however, Faze were the winners, denying the new 100 Thieves a chance at their international debut.

“We had beaten XSET in the group stage. But they had a week to prepare and were able to anti strat us since they'd watched us play FaZe the day before our match with them,” seangares said. “Rematching a tactical team [FaZe] on pretty much like the same maps that we just played after that loss was hard.”

As a result of them being able to rack up enough points, 100T had one last chance to play on an international stage in 2022: the Last Chance Qualifier, and they weren't letting it slip away without a fight.

The players took a week-long break after the Stage 2 playoffs then doubled down hard. After that minor respite, with the exception of one weekend where they shot content for the organization, there were no days off until the end of their run, however far it would be. The team ended up altering six of their seven team comps heading into LCQ and flew into a boot camp in Dallas, Texas, about a week and a half before the event started.

Their opening match was against NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #3 crashies Austin Roberts Victor Victor Wong Marved Jimmy Nguyen Ethan Ethan Arnold Demon1 Max Mazanov , which proved to be a grueling three-map slugfest which they eventually won. Up next though, it was their old rival FaZe Clan FaZe Clan Inactive POISED Kevin Ngo mummAy Anthony DiPaolo TiGG Tanner Spanu BABYBAY Andrej Francisty supamen Phat Le they had to beat. They won the first map, lost the second, and were up 9-3 on map three, Ascent. Nine rounds were all they would get though, as FaZe put up an unbreakable defense, closing out the map 13-9 and once again, pushing 100 Thieves into the lower bracket.

Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #2 TenZ Tyson Ngo Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid Sacy Gustavo Rossi was the first team they had to face in their journey through the lower bracket, and despite it being rather close-run, 100 Thieves were able to beat the shroud -bolstered Sentinels roster to keep their dreams of Istanbul alive. Their next series was against Cloud9, which, according to seangares, was one of the few teams that won more than lost against them in practices. 100 Thieves managed to 2-0 them, and this was the boost of momentum the team really needed, especially considering they, once again, had to go up against FaZe in the Bo5 lower bracket final.

It was a shutout. 100T won 3-0, beating FaZe on map three, Ascent, in 13-3 fashion, a sea change from their last showing. The final obstacle in their path towards Champions was The Guard The Guard Inactive JonahP Jonah Pulice trent Trent Cairns neT Michael Bernet valyn Jacob Batio tex Ian Botsch , but at this juncture, 100 Thieves would not be denied. In yet another Bo5 series, 100 Thieves blazed through in a rush of glory, winning 3-0 with all three maps being convincing victories. They were headed to Istanbul.

100 Thieves Esports
@100T_Esports
what it sounds like to WIN LCQ 🔊
17:34 PM · Aug 16, 2022 ·
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Their LCQ victory is certainly a huge achievement but 100 Thieves is facing their biggest challenge to date: Champions 2022. Their first matchup is against one of EMEA's giants, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 Leo Leo Jannesson Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder .

“I have a ton of respect for the coaching staff and Boaster . Some of the stuff that they've done and created are the most innovative things on the scene,” said seangares.

However, the lack of LAN experience for the entire team, with the exception of Asuna, could end up being their biggest weakness, a sentiment both seangares and stellar echoed. Despite this, the team is still in good spirits.

“I'm just excited to be playing at a LAN in general, let alone Champions. I think every single team at the event would be thrilling to play against,” said stellar, who later singled out EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) Muggle Tang Shijun (唐时俊) CHICHOO Wan Shunji (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Haodong Guo Haodong (郭浩东) as an opponent he'd love to face.

One of the biggest factors for the team's success and its foundation is the great camaraderie and connection between the players. “There's been a lot of focus on communicating things in a healthy way so that way people feel heard. Working through those things in a team is super important. Everything else just falls literally right into place after that. The vibes here are unlike anything I've ever seen in esports and I've been on so many teams,” said seangares.

“Having a calm voice and attitude seems to bring people to the same level. We like to remind ourselves that every round is winnable and we've come back from worse before,” stellar said of the team's mental.

100T are in a group where they have to face off against the likes of DRX DRX Korea Rank #1 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Foxy9 Jung Jae-sung (정재성) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) — who seangares wants to face — FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 Leo Leo Jannesson Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , and FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #8 kon4n Vitor Hugo mwzera Leonardo Serrati havoc Ilan Eloy Khalil Khalil Schmidt nzr Agustin Ibarra to make it to the playoffs. They're not disconcerted by this though.

100 Thieves in Istanbul 100 Thieves are looking to steal away the trophy in Istanbul. (Photo courtesy: 100 Thieves)

“Our mental is really strong and we can adapt very quickly to almost any team. I think even after a loss, I still have faith in our team, and I think the players have faith in themselves,” seangares said. “A lot of teams, if they get punched in the mouth, and they lose their opening game, they might roll over. Whereas our team has proven to me and the community that that's not the case with us. So I think that's our biggest strength.”

In less than six months since the formation of the new roster, they've come far. However, 100 Thieves want to win it all.

“I never understood how any competitor ever said they're happy with being top four. We're gonna give it our all and hopefully, at the end of it, we're proud of what we accomplished,” seangares said. “It's just doing our best. And knowing that when we finish, there wasn't anything else we could have done better. Or, we might have been able to do things better but at the time, we couldn't have done more because we tried our absolute hardest. I don't want to have any regrets.”

How they will measure against the crucible that is Champions is unknown, but one thing is certain — the team has each others' backs and will not go down without doing everything in their power to bring the trophy home.