100 Thiefs has probably become one of the most hated teams in League of Legends after the group stages at Worlds which is pretty crazy if you consider the amount of fan-following that the team head coming into the Spring Split finals. Throughout the Summer Split, however, more and more people started disliking the team which ultimately culminated into a 100 Thieves Disappreciation Thread on Reddit after the Worlds group stages were over. So what exactly happened?
Meteos
The first major event for which the organization received a lot of hate was trading fan-favorite jungler William “Meteos” Hartman away to Flyquest for their jungler Andy “Anda” Hoang. While this was by itself criticized as a bad move for 100 Thieves, it was not the trade itself that enraged the fans but rather the way it was communicated.
Meteos was the first to write a Tweet on the situation. The way he wrote the Tweet made it seem like he was just told that he was being traded away shortly after playing a game on the LCS stage. This was quite shocking for most fans as Nadeshot, the owner of 100 Thieves, had previously always stated how much he cares about the players. However, as it turns out it was Meteos who requested the trade in the first place but accidentally made his Tweet way too emotional.
100 Thieves later put out a statement and video explaining the trade from their point of view saying that a trade was needed for the team and that Flyquest was the only organization willing to make a trade. Although it was not 100 Thieves’ fault that a lot of fans were outraged it was the beginning of the end for them.
Rift Rivals
A few weeks before attending Rift Rivals 100 Thieves stated that they would not play with their usual top laner and jungler but would instead be trying out Brandini in the top lane and Levi in the jungle. Levi is an experienced jungler who has found success on the international stage before so this was not the issue for most fans, however, Brandini was a completely inexperienced top laner who would have to face some of the best European tops which is why this decision irked quite a few fans.
During the Rift Rivals, it was definitely clear that Brandini was not up to par with the rest of the players attending the tournament which meant that 100 Thieves looked incredibly weak although they still won a game against Splyce. Although it was an experiment and a way for the team to give some of their subs experience on the big stage, fans were still disappointed in the performance of 100 Thieves. The team was supposed to be the second best team in NA but certainly didn’t play like it according to the fans.
Cody Sun
Although 100 Thieves received a lot of hate for their performance during Worlds, most of this hate is rather undeserved. They were in a group together with Invictus Gaming and Fnatic who are probably two of the strongest teams playing at Worlds this year. However, what they do deservedly get hate for is the Cody Sun situation.
Throughout the entire spring and summer split Cody Sun was the starting ADC for 100 Thieves. He performed solidly and consistently and was definitely part of why the team was so successful during both splits. He even helped the team go all the way to the finals during the Spring Split playoffs. Cody Sun deserved just as much praise for his contribution to 100 Thieves that they other members get.
However, for the Summer Split playoffs and the entirety of Worlds, 100 Thieves decided to put in Rikara as the starting ADC. Since 100 Thieves have never communicated to their fans why this decision was made fans feel betrayed by the team for not using the ADC that helped them get to Worlds in the first place. There seems to be no reason for the change and it has never been touched upon by the team. Even after the team was already eliminated from the playoffs contention at Worlds, they still did not give Cody Sun a single game on the international stage which is most fans agreed is a really unfair way to treat a player who helped you get to the international stage in the first place.
Whether you think 100 Thieves deserves the hate they are receiving or not, the team has a lot of issues that they get through before returning to the NA LCS for the 2019 Spring Split. For a new organization they have performed valiantly as they made it all the way to Worlds, however, they have also created a lot of issues for themselves. The organization definitely needs to improve the way that they communicate with the League of Legends community which is a pretty weird thing to say about an organization that received so much praise for the communication during the Spring Split.
