This is gonna be a long one
I'm starting a new series of articles where I'll be going over the history and rosters of all the orgs that made the partnered league, first starting with the Americas, then EMEA, and lastly Pacific. I'll try and do 2 every day, but I might do more or less some days because I have covid and I'm stuck inside with nothing to do. Any and all feedback is welcome!
ORG HISTORY
-100 Thieves founded in 2017 by Nadeshot, a former CoD pro. In late 2017, he received a generous investment from Dan Gilbert (owner of the Cleveland Cavs) that would allow what was a company to expand into a full on esports org.
-100T initially started as a lifestyle brand and still is to this day, but now hosts several esports teams, with players in Apex, Warzone, Fortnite, League of Legends, Valorant, and a franchised spot in the CDL as the LA Thieves. 100T entered VALORANT in early June, shortly after the game was officially released.
-The org, while known for its teams and star-studded rosters, also has a large amount of content creators signed across multiple games and genres, as well as an official facility, the 100 Thieves Cash App Compound.
-100T also reported 38 million USD in revenue in 2021, and have 460 million USD in total equity.
ROSTER HISTORY
2020
-100T entered Valorant by signing Hiko, a storied CS pro, and surrounding him four former PUBG pros, Valliate, Venerated, YaBoiDre, and Pride.
-This roster would struggle in the early ignition series tournaments, and the entire roster except for Hiko would be released after the ignition series concluded, and Hiko began to build a new roster of his own.
-Steel was added as the IGL as another old name from CSGO, one that had not played in the Tier1 scene for over 5 years at that point (due to ibp ban)
-nitr0, coming fresh off a grand slam win in CS, also joined the roster as the smokes player
-dicey and Asuna were both picked up from immortals as fresh, young talent, and would fill the duelists roles. 100T's roster going into first strike would be:
-Asuna
-Dicey
-Hiko
-nitr0
-steel-The squad would go on run through the North American first strike circuit, taking down teams like T1, Sentinels, and TSM along the way, to win the title of North America's first champions
2021
-100T would have a bumpy start to the VCT season with nitr0 having to take a short leave due to the birth of his second son, and 100T were not able to make it out of the first qualifier with stand-in Silenx
-After muddling results and the final stage 1 qualifier approaching, 100T swapped Dicey for Ethan, another CS pro coming from EG. From this point 100T would not make another roster move until LCQ
-The team would fall short in Masters 1 and in qualification for Masters 2, but would get their shot at the international stage in Masters 3 in Berlin
-After not getting enough circuit points to guarantee a spot in champions, 100T were forced to play the LCQ, and had cut Steel in favor of b0i, who had been a sub since early July, a decision that was viewed as highly questionable by many
-The squad would bow out in 3rd place to eventual LCQ winners Cloud9, ending their 2021 season
-During the offseason, nitr0 would return to CS and b0i would be dropped from the roster, leaving 100T with Ethan, Hiko, and Asuna
2022
-100T would sign ec1s as IGL, an important from EMEA, and BabyJ, a upcoming Sentinel player that proved himself with Faze at LCQ. The team also received a bye into groups due to their consistent placements last year. The roster for the first half of 2022 would be:
-asuna
-babyj
-ec1s
-ethan
-hiko-In their week 2 match against The Guard, 100T would get 13-0'd on the final map of the series, prompting a roster nuke that saw ec1s and babyj get released, and jcstani and bang signed on loan. However, they would still lose their week 3 match, effectively putting them out of contention for playoffs. The squad would finish 1-4, after a week 5 win against the 0-5 EG
-Between splits, 100T would overhaul their entire roster and coaching staff, signing MikesHD and Sean Gares as Assistant Coach and Head Coach respectively, and ddk as General Manager.
-Hiko would retire and move to content creation, Ethan would be transferred to NRG, jcstani's loan would be terminated, Bang would get a full contract, and Will, Stellar, and Derrek would all be signed. This also would leave Asuna as the last remaining member of the original first strike roster. At this time, the roster was:
-asuna
-will
-derrek
-bang
-stellar-This new roster would squeak into playoffs through the second qualifier for Stage 2 (100T had to play in the qualifier since they didn't place high enough)
-The squad would lock in playoffs with a 3-2 record, beating XSET, NRG, and Guard in the process. In playoffs, they won their opener against Faze, lost to XSET in upper semis, and exited playoffs with a loss to Faze in the lower bracket. Nonetheless, they had accrued enough points to attend LCQ
-100T would run it back in LCQ, beating NRG, Sentinels. C9, Faze, and Guard in the finals to clench a spot at Champions. At Champions they won their opening match against FNATIC, but would lose in uppers against DRX and their rematch against FNATIC, giving them an early exit from Champs.
PLACEMENTS AND TOURNAMENTS
-1st at First Strike (2020)
-5th-6th at Masters 1 (2021)
-5th-6th at Challengers 2 playoffs (2021)
-2nd at Challengers 3 playoffs (2021)
-3rd-4th at Masters 3 Berlin (2021)
-3rd at LCQ (2021)
-9th-10th at Challengers 1 (2022)
-5th-6th at Challengers 2 playoffs (2022)
-1st NA LCQ (2022)
-9th-12th at Champions (2022)
RUMORED ROSTER MOVES
-Since the confirmation of 100T's acceptance into the partnership league, they have brought in XSET's Cryocells as an op replacement for Will. Will has been released completely and is an unrestricted free agent
-There are rumors that bang may be replaced, but nothing has been reported from a credible source as of yet
-As of now, the 100T 2022 Roster is:
-Asuna
-Bang
-Derrek
-Stellar
-CryocellsADDITIONAL THREADS
-Champions matches thread: https://www.vlr.gg/143692/champs-analysis-megathread
-C9: https://www.vlr.gg/148561/cloud9-org-overview
-my twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanG2B
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