Despite 3-0 loss, 100 Thieves' Busio still feels in control
Rockets don’t stop halfway…they just constantly get struck by the FlyQuest meteor.
Nobody was expecting what had happened to 100 Thieves in their best-of-five series against FlyQuest to kickstart the LCS 2023 Spring Split playoffs. 100 Thieves entered the playoffs following an exciting seven game win streak to finish the LCS 2023 Spring Split regular season. In two weeks, 100 Thieves made the leapfrog jump from 8th place in the LCS to finishing the split as the third best team in the LCS.
Meanwhile, FlyQuest had been tumbling down in recent weeks. For the majority of the LCS 2023 Spring Split, FlyQuest had spent the season in sole-possession of first place. Meanwhile, FlyQuest botlaner Lee “Prince” Chae-hwan had been the frontrunner for the LCS 2023 Spring MVP award. However, the last two weeks had painted a different picture as many questioned FlyQuest’s ability to bounce back for the LCS 2023 Spring Split playoffs against a strong team like 100 Thieves.
Yet, FlyQuest continued to be a meteor crashing into 100 Thieves’ seemingly indestructible rocket ship as this series had been a 3-0 sweep. For 100 Thieves’ support Alan "Busio" Cwalina, it was a rough experience for his first LCS playoff series. 100 Thieves had reverted back to compositions centered around the late-game and the team had found themselves constantly on the backfoot to FlyQuest. Yet, despite the 3-0, Busio still feels the team is in control of their own fate.
Another 100 Thieves late-game composition
100 Thieves' botlaner Doubelift.
Photo by Robert Paul/Riot Games
One of the biggest talking points was 100 Thieves' decision to draft Jinx and Thresh botlane, a popular botlane duo for late-game compositions, in all three games. When asked about that decision, Busio provided perspective on that decision.
“It’s a pretty good combo with a hard scaling AD with support that provides a lot of safety. Even though it’s a weak lane, you also get priority because of Jinx rockets are super OP early, the enemies, even though they’re winning,” Busio said. “It’s a very versatile combo that scales well and it doesn’t have any major weaknesses with more execution. I just think it’s a really strong combo.”
Game one was a complete masterclass for FlyQuest. While 100 Thieves had “misplayed” the dragon fight, according to Busio, there wasn’t really much left in control for 100 Thieves in that first game.
“The game was kind of hard because of misplays from our end,” Busio said. “We were just kind of playing on the back foot and waiting for them to make mistakes so we could actually play the game again.”
Game two was where the series really tipped toward the favor of FlyQuest. While FlyQuest had dominated game one, the second game of the series was all set up for 100 Thieves to tie up the series. Instead, 100 Thieves slowly saw their 5k gold lead fall apart as FlyQuest inched their way to a miraculous win. While the game could be viewed as strong play from FlyQuest’s end, Busio’s attention was focused on all the mistakes made by 100 Thieves in that game.
“It was in our control. It felt easy throughout the entire game until we went too hard and played too deep,” Busio said. “Nothing really caught me off guard, we just made mistakes.”
The final game was more or less the same routine for Busio. 100 Thieves held control of the game until a failed tower dive in the botlane ultimately saw the early game tempo crumble for 100 Thieves.
While that play did not affect the team at the moment because of their “late-game” composition, the end result was still the same as 100 Thieves’ hopes of a reverse sweep were officially over.
100 Thieves drop to LCS Lower Bracket
100 Thieves finished 3rd in the LCS 2023 Spring Split Regular Season.
Image via Sage Datuin of Esports Illustrated
Busio’s first playoff series had officially been over. The 100 Thieves rocket that seemed unstoppable lost a bit of its momentum in its mission for an LCS championship title. Still, 100 Thieves’ season is not over. For Busio, many of the mistakes were things that were manageable on their end and ones that the 100 Thieves’ support held a lot of accountability for.
From mechanical misplays to team fight positioning errors, Busio accepted his own mistakes before concluding his statement on a strong note.
“We’ll play better next time and we’ll learn from it,” Busio shared. “We felt in control for most of the series, despite the 3-0. We still feel in control.”
With their loss, 100 Thieves will move forward into the LCS 2023 Spring Split playoffs Lower Bracket where they will match up against LCS sixth seed Golden Guardians. This time around, they are the clear favorites to win that series. As a result, there isn’t much more than Busio and 100 Thieves plan on doing differently for Golden Guardians.
“I think we’ll just win. It’s not that deep,” Busio said. “I felt these games against FlyQuest were pretty controlled, despite it being 3-0. They are a much better team than Golden Guardians so we’ll just play again and win.”
How to watch LCS 2023 Spring
100 Thieves’ Lower Bracket match against Golden Guardians will take place tomorrow, March 24, 2023. The winner will move forward into the Lower Bracket Semifinals while the loser’s Spring Split will come to an end.
Viewers will be able to tune into the LCS 2023 Spring Split playoffs through the LCS Twitch and YouTube channels.
