After a comeback win to open the series, 100 Thieves held off a victory from XSET to close the series and advance in the NA VCT Stage Three Challengers Playoffs to the upper bracket final. There, they will face against the dominant-looking Sentinels.
Regardless of the outcome, the main objective for 100T has been completed: they have secured a place at Masters Three Berlin, after falling short at Masters One and the Stage Two Challengers Finals.
XSET had little time to rest after their dominant showing against Luminosity, but kept their momentum going to start out their Haven attack side. They jumped out to a 9-3 lead at halftime against 100 Thieves, keeping Hiko to zero kills, as XSET looked to pull off another victory against the First Strike champions for the second time this stage. But 100 Thieves were rocking their triple initiator comp again, and their ability to gain info and fully flash their opponents bolstered their own attack side, weakening XSET’s lead to just one round before tying it at 11-11. 100T took the final two rounds to complete the 10-2 half and steal XSET’s map pick 13-11.
On Ascent, a first for both sides during these Playoffs, 100 Thieves opted to again run their triple initiator comp. This time, it was 100T who jumped out to a sizable lead on their map pick’s attack side, riding on the shoulders of more great Jett play from Asuna. A vital 3k from 16-year-old Zekken kept the 100T lead from getting too large, but XSET went into halftime trailing 4-8 ahead of their attack side. Ethan’s pistol dominated the first three rounds of the second half, ballooning the 100T lead to 11-4 before the first gun round. In that round, XSET blitzed into B bombsite, and Zekken delivered a nice 4k to give XSET some life.
But 100T held the B site firm the next round, reaching series point with a massive 12-5 lead. A second big Zekken play earned XSET another round, and a huge dephh clutch produced another. Then, XSET got another four rounds to reduce the 100T lead to 12-11, bringing the map to the final round of regulation. 100T was able to just hold on thanks to a ridiculous 3k spray from nitr0 through smoke, taking the map 13-11 and the series 2-0.
The 100 Thieves victory brought the first day of the Challengers Playoffs to a close, with Berlin-qualifying matches being decided by 2-0 series where both maps were won 13-11. With their win, 100T moves on to the upper bracket final where they will face Sentinels, with both teams already having secured their spots at Masters Three. XSET will join Envy in waiting for their lower bracket opponent, and will need to win two straight series to grab the final NA spot at Masters.
