The Rise of 100 Thieves - Team roster spotlight
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Hello there, Steemit Community
2018 marks the first year where the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NALCS) has franchised, meaning that there have been new NBA investors and new faces to the League.
One of these teams was 100 Thieves, owned by former Call Of Duty professional Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag. The 25 year old retired eSports player decided to apply for one of the places in the NALCS in order to expand his company outside of COD.
Context of 100 Thieves
As stated, Nadeshot was a former COD player, playing for Optic Gaming for 5 years (2010-2015). He decided to retire due to his passion of becoming a content creator on Youtube, which then influenced him to create his own eSports brand, 100 Thieves.
After a last place finish in the COD World League in 2016, the decision of removing the entire COD roster led the eSports team to be put on hold for most of 2017 since there were no other rosters in other games that had played for the 100 thieves name.
After almost a year break, Nadeshot decided to apply for an NALCS spot with the support of the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA organisation.
The NALCS roster- A powerhouse of veterans
The new League of Legends roster for 100 Thieves is as follows:
Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho - [Top] - Formerly part of Team Dignitas (2016-2017)
William "Meteos" Hartman [Jungle] - Formerly part of Cloud 9 (2013-2017)
Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook [Middle] - Formerly part of Phoenix 1 (2016-2017)
Cody Sun [ADC] - Formerly part of Immortals (2016-2017)
Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black [Support] - Fomerly part of Counter Logic Gaming (2012-2017)
Neil "pr0lly" Hammad [Coach] - Formerly coached H2K (2014-2017)
All of the players on this roster have exceeded 5 years of play in LoL eSports (Except Cody Sun, who only has 3), meaning that the roster is well-experienced including Prolly who is a retired LoL mid-laner. It's therefore unsurprising to see their seamless implementation into the first 2 weeks into the 2018 NALCS.
The NALCS Academy Roster - A mixed bag of rookies and rising players
"Kaizen" [Top] - Challenger Player (No previous team)
Đỗ Duy Khánh "Levi" [Jungle]- Formerly part of Gigabyte Marines (2016-2017)
"Linsanity" [Middle] - Challenger Player (No previous Team)
Richard "Rikara" Samuel Oh [ADC] - Formerly part of Golden Coin United (2016-2017)
"Whyin" [Support] - Challenger Player (No previous Team)
The rules of NALCS Academy is that only one imported player and a maximum of 2 "veteran" players are allowed to participate in one roster. Levi is the import and a veteran with rising fame after the victory against TSM at 2016 MSI. Rikara is the other veteran in the team who has played professionally since 2013 but with limited success.
The results 2 weeks in? As expected, in my opinion
As of writing the regular team has flawlessly won 3 games with no losses to their name against rivals Optic Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming in week 1 and a win against Clutch Gaming in the second (they still have Cloud 9 to play tonight!). Of course, with a world class roster that works well, being at the top of the standings is no surprise.
The Academy team has not seen the same results. Since Levi has had Visa issues, Thanh Dat Nguyen Tran "Kitzuo" has taken the space as jungler, whose performance is nowhere near the caliber of the first pick jungler.
We are only 2 weeks in so far meaning that teams still have time to improve and adapt, so it may be that these results are not consistent.
Conclusion
100 thieves has entered the League of Legends with an explosive start, smashing the standings of the NALCS to become 1st and are continuously expanding and pressing its influence on viewers and rival teams. The forecast for the Former COD player's organisation looks bright and prosperous!
100 thieves continues to branch out to new games, taking in the old Immortals roster in CS:GO (which has had mixed results as one player was released due to behavioural issues.)
What do you guys think? Is nadeshot making a good decision with spreading his company to new games and eSports communities - or should he have remained in the Call of Duty eSports industry? Let me know in the comments of your opinion!
Thanks for reading - upvote and follow if you enjoyed the post!
Riyad/Rags
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