Cloud9 was deemed North America’s offseason winners after locking in yay, the hottest free agent in the scene, following OpTic’s roster disbanding. The so-called C9 “superteam” was favored to win the Red Bull Home Ground event as well, but was put in their place by a newly-formed 100 Thieves.
While other teams made massive changes to their roster this offseason, the Thieves opted to keep all but one member of their team that qualified for Champions earlier this year. Former XSET star Cryocells was deemed the missing puzzle piece for the team, and he looked like it at this tournament.
100T were the only team out of the eight invited to go undefeated in the group stage. Meanwhile, C9 lost one series to FOKUS, who was later eliminated. The Thieves continued their undefeated streak against Team Vitality in the semifinals, sweeping them 2-0 to stamp their tickets to a grand final.
The first two maps of the best of five final were bloodbaths between the two teams, with both trading equally important rounds. Off the back of bang on Bind and Cryocells on Fracture, 100T pushed forward to go up 2-0 once again.
With C9 staring down a sweep in the final, the team went on to Icebox—the most one-sided map of the series, as it would turn out. 100T made C9 look lost and confused as they continued to take down C9’s efforts to stop them on the attack. They finished out the half with a 9-3 lead and momentum on the defense. Cryocell’s Chamber on defense was all the team needed to put the final nail in the coffin. 100T completed the 3-0 sweep with a 13-3 win statement victory.
In one of the first big tournaments featuring rosters that will compete in the 2023 VCT season, the battle of the North American superteams fell in favor of the younger roster. It’s an excellent start for 100T, but one they’ll need to continue proving when VCT play kicks off again in Brazil next February.
