100 Thieves are having a rough time. In the first match of the Mid-Season Showdown, Cloud 9 defeated 100 Thieves with a 3-0. In the next round of the upper bracket Cloud 9 will face TSM, while 100 Thieves will face Dignitas in the lower bracket.
One final fight and @Cloud9 clean up the 3-0 victory in the 2021 Mid-Season Showdown delivered by @Grubhub! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/UqbwzySvyb
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) March 21, 2021
Where’s the Flavor?
…Where is the competition? Back in January, 100 Thieves were a team not to be contended with, but now they easily lost against Cloud 9– which was sadly expected. If they want to win this weekend against team Dignitas, they will have to step up their performance. Instead of following the typical NA meta, 100 Thieves needs to pull out the unexpected and unusual champion combos to surprise their enemies and win unconventionally. Too many of their players rely on their best 2-3 champions, therefore it’s easy for the opposing team to counter-pick. Dipping into the unfamiliar is their only hope to beating Dignitas.
100 Thieves also needs to play off their dragon and Baron steals. They do pretty well when it comes to fights over these valuable objectives, so they need to base their game around team fights rather than one-on-one duals.
How the Tables Turn…
Fudge played an insane game against 100 Thieves’ Ssumday. He was getting absolutely flamed at the beginning of the LCS season and it must have motivated him to prove the haters wrong. As opposed to 100 Thieves’ decline in performance, Fudge has actually been improving steadily throughout the split. People need to keep in mind that Fudge is only 18, which is one of the youngest players in the league. Viewers are being overly critical and undermining Fudge’s performances. Since Fudge is so young, this gives him time to learn from his mistakes and improve upon them, something 100 Thieves should be doing.
100 Thieves needs to learn from this and prepare for the worst. They need to ensure that if their champion is being counter-picked, they switch up their playstyle and work together more as a team.
A Crumbling Infrastructure
In terms of infrastructure, the combinations 100 Thieves is doing are not working. Zikz took a team roster that performed well in the Lock-In tournament to the LCS, but the team has managed to get progressively worse through the spring split. Ryoma replacing Damonte could have been a fresh start, with Ryoma typically performing better in lane, but when it comes to team fights where they try to outplay their enemies in a standard game they end up losing.
100 Thieves needs to go back to their old roots where they would bring out unusual comps like Karthus and Nocturne. The only way 100 Thieves will win is to pop out the unusual instead of trying to mimic the meta. Bring Damonte back!
Hopefully, 100 Thieves will pull it together and win the losers bracket against Dignitas in their upcoming match this Sunday. Fans hope to see better performances from both Ssumday and FBI, the two players who are the meat and bones of the team.