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Amidst the ongoing player shuffle season in Valorant, 100 Thieves have announced former XSET pro Matthew "Cryocells" as one of their new signees. Cryo is widely regarded as one of the best Valorant players in the current scenario, and 100T CEO Matthew Haag, aka Nadeshot, is pretty happy with the decision.
Haag believes that recruiting Cryo is the perfect fit for their Valorant roster at the moment. Cryocells will replace Will, the main duelist for 100 Thieves' Valorant roster.
Riot Games' announcement regarding the VCT 2023 partnership program earlier this month triggered a lot of the hustle and bustle inside the Valorant esports industry. With many deserving teams missing out on becoming franchisees, talented athletes have declared themselves free agents looking for an opportunity to join a partnered team.
Nadeshot reveals the reason behind choosing Cryocells for 100 Thieves' Valorant roster
Matthew Panganiban, popularly known as Cryocells, has continuously established himself as one of the best Operator players. His skills are almost considered at par with ex-OpTic superstar yay. Nadeshot also revealed why he considered picking Cryocells over yay for the organization's Valorant roster.
According to the popular founder and co-owner of 100 Thieves, there were plans to consider yay as well:
"At the end of the day, I think everyone would agree that right now, yay is probably the best player in the world, if not one of the best players in the world. And there was a lot of interest. Anybody would be silly to not consider yay to join their team."
However, Cryocells turned out to be the best fit, with his strengths fulfilling what the team needs at the moment. Nadeshot said:
"And it wasn't a matter of expense, it wasn't a matter of... common ground between us, you know, in the idea of working together. We just think that Cryo at this moment in time for the rest of the team is probably the best fit."
Nadeshot further explained the 19-year-old's competency and even compared his skillsets with yay for the future:
"19, it's his first competitive game you heard it from himself. And if he is already playing at this level, we feel like with the right investment and time and resources that 100 Thieves have behind Cryo, that he could really be rivaling yay one day for one of the best players in the world."
With Cryocells joining, 100 Thieves' Valorant roster will include him, Asuna, Bang, Stellar, and Derrek - all young and ready to face the competition next year. At the moment, it's unknown whether the roster will undergo further changes.
Nadeshot also revealed how difficult the roster change was emotionally, especially because the organization had to release Will to make space for Cryo:
"It sucks, everytime you gotta make a roster change when you love the team, there's no other way around and it sucks. So, we talked about Will, his impact on this program, and how much we appreciate his time, but now it's time to talk about Cryo because with franchising on the horizon, we got accepted into the partner program. The stakes are very very high, we wanna be the best team we can possibly be."
Nadeshot mentioned how Cryo's exceptional skills and ability to freely play a lot of Agents is something that the 100 Thieves team needs more of.
