Many people had already counted out 100 Thieves before the tournament even started but today they showed that they do belong on the Worlds stage. Even though they had a match against a relatively weak opponent, 100 Thieves still came out on top in what was quite a convincing first victory for the team.
The team that 100 Thieves played against was GRex, the third-place seed from the LMS that played quite impressively during the play-in tournament. However, they looked very chaotic today and far from the team that we saw play during the play-in stages. 100 Thieves, on the other hand, looked way more controlled and communicated today compared to yesterday. What many people called the weakest team at Worlds yesterday now looks like your average Worlds team.
Especially Ssumday and Aphromoo were very impressive for 100 Thieves today. They are definitely the strongest players in the team so putting them on champions that can make plays and carry was definitely a smart decision. Hopefully, 100 Thieves will learn from this win and will continue putting Ssumday and Aphromoo on champions that they can carry with.
Cue the Benny Hill Theme:@Ryulol
with the grand escape! #Worlds2018 pic.twitter.com/9aObjwI6pSAdvertisement— lolesports (@lolesports) October 12, 2018
Another player on 100 Thieves that deserves some credit is Rikara. The young player has never even played in the LCS before except during a playoff match and was suddenly brought along to Worlds. Unsurprisingly he’s having a pretty hard time against world class ADC players that he should not have faced off against at this point of his career. However, during today’s game, he played his heart out. Despite losing lane again, he played quite brilliantly during the teamfights. For someone as inexperienced as him it must definitely be a boost to his confidence.
Hopefully, 100 Thieves will keep playing as like they played today going forward in the tournament. This could actually bring some much-needed competition to Group D that earlier looked to be dominated solely by Invictus Gaming, who are now 2-0, and Fnatic. Tomorrow 100 Thieves will face off against Invictus Gaming and while on paper it looks almost impossible to win, with another performance like we saw today, they might just be able to take the upset win.
