In the fourth round of the lower bracket, 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #3 Cryocells Matthew Panganiban Asuna Peter Mazuryk vora Jordan Pulwer Timotino Timothée Lavigne Dupont bang Sean Bezerra defeated Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #4 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong Zellsis Jordan Montemurro penny Erik Penny OXY Francis Hoang 2-1 to eliminate them from the VCT Americas 2026 Kickoff tournament. Both teams were on their final chance, but the regional struggle to reach internationals continues from C9 in early 2026.

Starting on Pearl, 100T ran a solo Waylay composition with Veto, while C9 ran OXY on Chamber with penny on Neon. C9 won the first pistol, but losing the bonus offered 100T the opportunity to take the lead, which they did. It could have spiraled out of control, but C9 managed to pull the half back to a 6-6 tie. 100T won the second pistol, leading to four round wins in the first five of the second half. That meant 100T had 10-7, 11-9, and 12-10 leads against C9, with a couple of thrifty wins and crazy plays in between.

100T wins a big thrifty by sneaking a defuse.

Even with that moment highlighting chaos from C9, the team stretched the map to overtime, before 100T easily won two rounds to secure map one 14-12.

For Split, C9 kept OXY on Chamber, while 100T opted for the Asuna Sage pick. Cloud9 won the first pistol round but lost the bonus round. Even then, the team continued extending the lead on the defense side, with v1c stepping up alongside OXY. It looked like C9 was dominating on its map pick, but 100T turned a sole thrifty round win into a tied half. For the second time in the series, the second pistol carried a lot of importance, and C9 won its second pistol on Split.

After converting the bonus, C9 once again entered a half on Split with a solid lead, and v1c played perfectly to shut down the retakes from 100T. Yet, also like map one, the team behind would refuse to lose, and this time it was 100T doing the comeback via bang . Reaching a 10-10 and an 11-11 tie, it was Zellsis winning an important clutch to help end the map 13-11 and take the series to Abyss.

Abyss began with 100T opting for Chamber, while C9 swapped to double-Duelist with a Breach pick. v1c won C9 the first pistol, keeping up his form from earlier in the series. 100T stopped the bonus round conversion, tying the game early at 2-2. As 100T built a lead, the perfect moment that encapsulated the first half for C9 was a Sova ultimate teamkill from Xeppaa . The halftime score was 10-2, and a pistol win was enough as 100T won Abyss 13-2 and the series 2-1, eliminating Cloud9 from Kickoff.

With this win, 100 Thieves will move on to the fifth round of the lower bracket and will match up against NRG NRG North America Rank #1 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold to keep its run for Santiago alive.