100 Thieves has traded Meteos of Flyquest in return for Anda, in what is probably one of the most surprising roster changes all split. Meteos has stated in a currently deleted Tweet that he is unsure what the future holds for him as he has no interest in playing in the academy league.
100 Thieves and FlyQuest have traded Meteos and AnDa, team sources tell ESPN.
100 Thieves will start Brandini and Levi at Rift Rivals and FlyQuest will continue, for now, to use Santorin in its starting lineup. Meteos, according to his tweet, is unsure of his future.
— Jacob Wolf @ #CEO2018 (@JacobWolf) July 2, 2018
The swap comes as a surprise not only to Meteos but also to his fans and fans of 100 Thieves. This is the team’s first split in the LCS and they have quickly built up a large fan following due to their success, but also due to their constant vlogs that put a lot of focus on teambuilding. Throughout the vlogs, Nadeshot, the owner of the team, is constantly saying how teambuilding and synergy are the most important aspects of a team. This makes suddenly trading away Meteos an extremely weird move as he’s been building synergy with the roster for quite some time now.
From a roster standpoint, the trade also seems rather senseless. First of all, they’re trading an extremely strong and successful jungler for a jungler that hardly has success in the academy league. Secondly, the trade means that 100T is forced to bench Ssumday or Ryu since teams aren’t allowed to play with 3 import players on the same team. 100T clearly wants to field Levi instead of Meteos but Levi is another import. The team has already stated that they will be starting Brandini in the top lane which means that Ssumday is out for now. The team had already stated that they would be starting Brandini and Levi at the Rift Rivals tournament, which would be a great way for Levi and Brandini to get some experience. However, trading away Meteos feels rushed when the Rift Rivals roster has not even seen any play yet.
We’re excited to share that @lolLevi97 and @Brandini_LoL will be starting for 100 Thieves at #RiftRivals2018!
Both players have shown immense dedication to the game and to the team. We can’t wait to see them play at this special international event next week! #100T #NAWIN pic.twitter.com/xvgEgnTSrr
— 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) June 27, 2018
Although the trade makes sense for Flyquest, it will probably work out a lot different than what they had hoped for. They are trading one of their weakest players for a really strong one, but Meteos refuses to play in the Academy League. The organization has told Meteos that they do not have an available starting position, according to his deleted Tweet, which means that they will move forward with Santorin as the main jungler. If Meteos really refuses to play in the Academy League, Flyquest won’t have a starting jungler for their academy roster.
All in all, it’s interesting to see how the teams will proceed and it will be exciting to see Levi play on international stage again. However, the trade still feels very rushed and hardly makes any sense at the moment. We hope to get more details from both organizations in the future.
