Hiko: ‘This 100 Thieves roster was built for LAN’

Few teams entered VALORANT with as much veteran Counter-Strike: Global Offensive talent as 100 Thieves. Between Spencer “Hiko” Martin and Josh “steel” Nissan alone, 100T has over two decades worth of CS experience. Both Ethan “Ethan” Arnold and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella were considered some of the top NA CS talent when they decided to make the switch.

“This 100 Thieves roster was built for LAN,” Hiko said. “It wasn’t built for online. Historically, online results have been kind of wonky, they don’t mean as much. Our abilities and experience as players will translate way better to a LAN environment.”

At North America’s VALORANT Champions Tour Challengers Playoffs, 100 Thieves finally made good on the pursuit of a LAN. Over the course of VCT, 100T were never able to recapture the top spot from Sentinels after winning First Strike.

“It means a lot to make LAN with this team, not going to the first LAN really took a toll and hurt all of us,” Hiko said after 100T qualified for Masters: Berlin. “Seeing Sentinels win it, with the rivalry from the same region, it definitely hurt seeing that and not being there ourselves. To make it this time, and to know that what we built this roster for is actually coming to fruition, the hours and hours of bootcamping and practicing were worth it. I’m super excited, super happy we made it, and I can’t wait to play on that stage.”

At Berlin, 100T will finally have a chance to take on their rivals, and the rest of the world, in the LAN environment where they have so much experience.

“If we go to the event and can leverage that LAN experience, we are going to play with confidence,” steel said after qualifying for Berlin. “We’re going to feed off the energy of the environment and other teams aren’t going to play with as much confidence.”

Now, as far as LANs go, Berlin is only partially the true experience. The gameplay is different with no ping, but with no fans in the stands, the environment isn’t the same as it was for nitr0 when he won the Intel Grand Slam in 2019. Still, there are a lot of little things that go into a LAN that some teams just might not be ready for.

“You’re removed from your safe home environment, you’re staying at hotels, away from friends and family,” steel said. “Everything’s different -- a different diet, different sleep schedule, different time zone, different desk, different chair, all these things happening outside the game can impact your rhythm. Once you get into the game, you have people watching you, cameras in your face, the opposing team taunting you. It just takes you out of your comfort zone, and if you aren’t used to that, you could play worse.”

With players moving straight from their bedrooms or team facilities to the most important international tournament in VALORANT’s history, things will feel a little bit different. Especially when the LAN is halfway across the world and not just in another American city.

The wild card

“I’ve been to Berlin before, I have a good idea of what’s around there, but a lot of the people competing haven’t been to Germany before including my teammate Peter [“Asuna” Mazuryk],” Nitr0 said. “He’s super excited to go to Europe, and I think most teams won’t have that experience. So for us, having that experience under our belt should help a lot.”

Asuna is the one player on 100 Thieves who doesn’t have a wealth of LAN experience to draw from. He’s also 100 Thieves' best player. Making sure that he plays to his full potential is crucial if 100T want to win Berlin.

Read more: 100 Thieves VALORANT rising star Asuna proving himself to fans, his parents

“I’m not really sure what to expect from [Asuna], we’ve been trying to make sure he’s as comfortable as possible,” Hiko said. “But we’ve all got so much experience, major grand finals, Intel grand slam, countless LANs. So those early jitters some teams and players get, I don’t think we will have to go through that.”

Sure, Asuna may be the wild card here, but he has plenty of veteran talent to lead the way when it comes to keeping a rhythm and routine in a LAN setting.

Not just a battle for Berlin

The stakes really couldn’t be higher for 100 Thieves. With Sentinels already having qualified for Champions, Berlin effectively represents a two-team race for Champions between 100T and Envy. 100T need to finish ahead of Envy in order to take North America’s second spot at Champions, with the team eliminated first having to battle it out in the Last Chance Qualifier.

Then there’s the added caveat that if any NA team wins the entire tournament, all three NA teams in Berlin are headed to Champions.

“The ultimate goal of the team is to make Champions at the end of the year,” nitr0 said. “That’s like [Dota 2’s The International] where people only look forward to that tournament. But in order to do that, we have to place pretty well in Berlin.”

Berlin represents often conflicting fandom for teams from the same region. Only two of the 16 teams in Berlin are locked into Champions: Sentinels and KRÜ Esports from Latin America. So for every other team, they are simultaneously trying to perform better than the other teams in the region while also at times rooting for them to win to receive the extra spot given to the winner of Berlin.

Basically, 100T and Envy will be in a heated rivalry up until one of the two teams loses. At that point, it's in the best interest of the eliminated team to turn into their former rival's biggest fan in hopes they win the entire tournament. And NA’s race is a lot simpler. EMEA has four teams in Berlin fighting for three circuit point spots in Champions with none currently locked in.

“Goal No. 1 at Berlin is simply to outperform Envy,” Hiko said. “Winning Berlin would be the best though, especially because we just haven’t been able to beat Sentinels the last like six times we’ve played them.”

Qualifying for Berlin represented an important milestone for 100 Thieves. In Germany, they will finally have the opportunity to make good on why this roster was put together with a slot in VALORANT’s first world championship on the line.

Lead image credit: 100 Thieves