On a casual Tuesday afternoon, 100 Thieves posted a video. The opening shot had two empty directors chairs, awaiting to be filled. Entering first in a black hoodie with a relatively straight face would be their new general manager. Following him, struggling to contain his excitement, was their new head coach.
Two of the most valued voices on the VALORANT broadcast were now going to be the two biggest voices when it came to 100 Thieves’ VALORANT division. At least, we think they will.
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During his tenure in competitive Counter Strike: Global Offensive as a player, Sean Gares would often times be seen as a player coach. His ability to breakdown a game and communicate it back to an audience in a digestible manner. As he moved to VALORANT, it would be much of the same. Given how young the scene is, his voice carried a ton of weight. He already had the respect of players and fans in the scene. Every time he spoke, people were eager to listen.
His VALORANT commentary partner was no slouch either. Daniel “ddk” Kapadia has been a long-time voice with PC first person shooters. His ability to transcribe what was taking place during a competitive Counter Strike or VALORANT match shouldn’t be understated. The hours spent learning about players, their tendencies, watching their matches.
Given their relationship as a pairing, it isn’t a surprise to see the two brought together into a team. With Riot Games not bringing the two on as talent for their Masters event, the two are taking their talents away from the broadcast and into a new environment. Rather than peering from behind the monitor, the eyes will be on them.
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Competitive VALORANT is about to turn two. Two. Yet given the interest in the game, organizations are treating it like an arms race. Contract figures for top talent melt the brains of financial analysts, investors are attempting to stay calm while teams invest money and Riot Games smiles in the background, knowing they’ve done it again.
Given its similarities to Counter Strike, the scene is looking to translate what worked in that respective space to the new title. Right out of the gate, top names in North America were former CS:GO pros. Slowly, that is beginning to change with new talents showing their stuff. Teams then began to build out coaching staff — widely featuring the same, small structure of one or two analyst figures and maybe a coach. But, it is still being determined what these roles are meant to accomplish.
Sometimes, it feels like organizations are doing something just to do it.
In the announcement video, 100 Thieves founder and CEO Matthew Haag delivered his thoughts on the move, citing his willingness to give the two full autonomy to build out their desired vision. Yet his passion and investment into the game may cloud that ability just a bit. Kapadia and Gares would also provide their initials thought — with Kapadia setting the expectations for what he was looking to accomplish:
So I think as a fan of 100 Thieves VALORANT, what you need to know is that what I really intend to do is to make this a team that creates the definition of excellence within esports. But I have a singular focus which is winning and with that will come a lot of things where I hope to set the standard. That’s the way I’m thinking about this. I want to set the standard as to how to win and how to do competitive video games.
But what does that even mean? Competitive VALORANT hasn’t seen long-term success. It has teams reach the top of the mountain on hot streaks but cool off and then sit as just an upper middle of the pack line-up. We still haven’t seen how some players will react to coaching — the big one being Sentinels and their esports veterans line-up. Joining 100 Thieves means they will be working alongside Spencer “Hiko” Martin — who has been a critical voice to the line-up and has effectively been their franchise man.
This was also a relatively quick decision from 100 Thieves. As many have stated, it was the perfect storm for this to happen in the first place.
100 Thieves went from having not much in place to now having a complete front office structure — which on paper is good — but in practice, is complicated. Especially when the figures are veterans of esports but aren’t necessarily experienced in their roles just yet.
Things will also have to work quickly. 100 Thieves are out of Stage 1 Challengers in 9th-12th, meaning that they will not be participating at the Masters tournament. Their roster has experienced massive turnover with no real points of potential. The team will have another opportunity in Stage 2 in May but expectations will be very high.
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it will be the most interesting story to follow in the North American VALORANT scene: can two beloved figures by the community turn 100 Thieves around? It is entirely possible given just how knowledgeable the two are.
However it should be mentioned that it is a move that doesn’t necessarily have a ton of logic behind it outside of fanfare. It is a heavy investment into something lacking a true proof of concept. While we expect Gares to coach the team well, we haven’t necessarily seen him in this role. While we expect Kapadia to make the right moves, we haven’t seen him in this position and we generally don’t know what the right moves are yet.
We don’t have much to work off of.
in an era where experimentation has benefited teams, 100 Thieves are going the opposite way and are prioritizing structure and stability. The optimism levels will be high with Gares but the real move to follow will be Kapadia. What does he do?
That’s the big unknown. Hiko took to this stream on Wednesday and noted that he did not know what the future VALORANT team looked like. And we will be left waiting to see what happens.
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If 100 Thieves are able to find success early, they may just have set the standard for how to approach building structure in the scene. But if not, it is a move that should be concerning. With the lack of franchising being in sight for the near future, teams have to be able to adapt and react quickly. Having a good coaching staff is a great start to doing so much the team needs to be able to roll with the punches. VALORANT is still evolving and it needs to be treated as a constantly evolving esport.
100 Thieves may have just put themselves in a difficult position. Not only are the stakes high, it is a very big move for the future of the team. If it works, it is still unknown if it can work for a long time. Yet with the people they were able to pull in — including assistant coach Michael “Mikes” Hockom, you have to like their chances.