LoL 100 Thieves are still just as bad, but they can still win
Just a few weeks ago, I had the League of Legends LCS 2023 Spring Split Grand Finals all set in my head, with FlyQuest and 100 Thieves at the forefront.
100 Thieves began their LCS 2023 Spring Split campaign on one of the grandest notes. Sure, maybe dominantly losing against Cloud9 isn’t the best start, but for the first three weeks, 100 Thieves looked like the second-best team in the LCS after FlyQuest. 100 Thieves went 4-2 in the first two weeks, with one of their losses being against FlyQuest after narrowly mounting a comeback.
Since this hot start, however, 100 Thieves have gone 1-7, announced their decision to part ways with head coach Christophe "Kaas" van Oudheusden, and stand at a 5-8 record on the fringes of missing out on the postseason, which should never happen for a lineup of this caliber. Still, I am here to tell you that there is some hope for this team to win enough games to make playoffs. Even if they might still be the same exact team.
Another failed heist?
100 Thieves currently look like a bottom-three team in the LCS, and their record in the LCS 2023 Spring Split standings reflects that.
100 Thieves are in a tight four-way race between themselves, CLG, Team Liquid, and TSM for two playoff spots in the LCS 2023 Spring Split postseason. They currently sit tied for 7th place with a 5-8 record alongside Team Liquid. Right now, the collective agreement is that 100 Thieves is the worst of these four teams currently.
When asked about how he would rank the four teams, CLG head coach Thomas “Thinkcard” Slotkin had 100 Thieves at the bottom of the four teams. Additionally, TSM support Jonathan “Chime” Pomponio had them missing playoffs. Yet, something that both could not deny was the amount of talent on 100 Thieves.
Truthfully, there are no excuses why this team should not be, at the bare minimum, a top-four team in the LCS. The current meta is built for a bot-centric team like 100 Thieves. They have the resources and talent to match up against some of the LCS’s top talents. So when they walk onto the LCS stage and lose to Cloud9 in the fastest game of the LCS 2023 Spring Split, it is mind-boggling.
Frankly, this team is not winning an LCS playoff series in LCS 2023 Spring, let alone the entire split. Clearly, there are some issues in the team if a team with three split champions and two of the game’s most talented prospects is sitting in 7th place.
One singular coaching change does not immediately fix all of the pre-existing issues this team has. It is very hard to believe that the sole reason this team can only play toward the late game is because of Kaas. Even if all the blame was solely on Kaas, you can’t miraculously fix all the issues in a team in two weeks by changing one coach, no matter how much hopium you are smoking.
LoL 100 Thieves fans can still have hope
100 Thieves' AD Carry Doublelift has still had a strong split despite team's struggles.
Photo by Robert Paul/Riot Games
100 Thieves are the easiest team in the LCS to pinpoint and break down. However, hope is not lost for 100 Thieves to make the playoffs. While the idea of playing an early game frightens them to the core, they are still a formidable opponent when it comes to late-game team fights. They are a team that loves late-game scaling champions and placing many of their compositional strengths towards Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. That alone might be enough to barely squeeze them into the playoffs, alongside a fairly opportunistic remaining schedule.
In week 7, 100 Thieves will play against Golden Guardians and Dignitas. That will be followed TSM, Evil Geniuses, and Immortals.
Even with their lackluster form, 100 Thieves should be able to beat Dignitas and Immortals purely off of roster strength alone. Additionally, TSM is a team that they stylistically match up well against, as TSM averages 964 gold down at 15 minutes, according to Oracle’s Elixir. So while this one change might not make many drastic changes, I do believe 100 Thieves will at least end their split with a couple of extra wins.
Right now, unless the team magically develops an early game, I think they will end the split at seven or eight wins. Anything above that win marker would genuinely be a shock, given the strength of both Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses. That being said, who knows what could happen.
Will 100 Thieves have the “Tenacity” to move “Closer” to a spot in the playoffs? Jokes aside, these next five games will be an interesting spectacle to watch as the coaching changes will probably not make any difference. But I will be here to see those who think it was a game-changing move if they happen to win three games for the rest of the split.
Where you can watch League of Legends LCS
Viewers can tune in for week 7 of the LCS 2023 Spring Split through the LCS Twitch and YouTube channels.
