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Eight of North America's top Valorant organizations are locked up in the VCT 2022 NA Last Chance Qualifiers bracket as they compete for a chance to qualify for the Valorant Champions 2022. On Day 2 of the tournament, 100 Thieves took on NRG Esports in a best-of-three series to open up their tally at the VCT NA LCQ.
NRG Esports kicked off the series with a 13-11 win on Icebox. 100 Thieves answered back with consecutive victories, starting with a dominant 13-7 win on Bind and a 13-11 win on Ascent. After a triumphant performance against NRG Esports, 100 Thieves appears to be in good shape for the remainder of the North American VCT LCQ.
100 Thieves' coach Sean Gares talks about franchising, upcoming Chamber nerf, and the team's expectations for VCT 2022 NA LCQ
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Esports' Adarsh J Kumar, 100 Thieves' head-coach, Sean "sgares" Gares, shared his thoughts on the team's victory over NRG at the VCT NA Last Chance Qualifiers, detailing their expectations for the remainder of the tournament.
Q: With a decisive victory over NRG Esports, 100 Thieves has had a good start to the VCT NA LCQ. As the team's coach, how would you fare 100 Thieves' performance today?
sgares: I think we played pretty well in certain areas. We played a lot of mental errors on Icebox, which is why NRG were able to get that map. I think on Bind, we played a very good game.
We made just a few mistakes throughout Bind, but when it came down to Ascent, I actually thought we made a lot more mistakes. We lost both pistols, an eco, a 4v3 post-plant on A-site, and there were a lot of opening picks we were handing over.
There was a particular mid-B round where we killed the spike going into Market and we over-commited to fights. We just made tons of mistakes throughout Ascent, but at the end of Ascent, we were able to reel it all in and all those mistakes were eliminated. We had our ups and downs today, for sure.
We hadn't played a match in a long time. I think we played very good today overall.
Q: 100 Thieves enjoyed a remarkable victory over NRG in the VCT Stage 2 NA Challengers. What do you think NRG did differently this time around?
sgares: They changed their comps quite a bit, just like us. That's what is so scary about this LCQ. There's no footage on any of the teams, and all the teams I'm sure have changed their comps, or at the very least changed a lot of the ways that at they play. So you can't go back and look at their VODs and expect to learn anything.
They changed a lot. I could tell that they were doing things to counter the ways that we liked playing, and the things that we had a tendency to do in the past. I thought they did a lot of really good push-pulling around the maps on their attack rounds. They would fake the B-site early round and end up going A, or go up mid and fake a mid-B, get Catwalk control and then go back into a mid-B. They did a lot of stuff like that; a lot of misdirection.
In their defensive halves, they did a very good job of taking map control and getting behind us when we were stalled out on an extremity. We had a particular B-hit that got stalled out, and hazed was waiting top-mid when we went back to mid. They did a really good job of countering our style throughout the series this time.
Q: After completing your VCT NA Stage 2 campaign, 100 Thieves had over a month's time to prepare for the VCT LCQ. Considering this is your last chance to claim a spot for Champions, how did you prepare the team for the tournament?
sgares: After the Challengers Playoffs (VCT Stage 2 NA), we took a week off. It was our first week off since Mikes, Dan (ddk) and I joined 100 Thieves. We just had time to communicate with the players to see where they're at mentally, and try to figure out what comp adjustments we had to make before moving into the VCT LCQ, since we would have just a month of practice after the week was over.
After that, we played online for a couple of weeks. Since then, we ended up coming to Dallas on July 24th, if I'm not wrong. We've been bootcamping at the AT&T Valorant team house since, and we'll continue to be here throughout the VCT LCQ. We're just working really hard.
Q: It’s been a little over four months since you joined as 100 Thieves' head coach. How much progress has the team made since then, and how satisfied are you with the team’s VCT success since you took over?
sgares: The progress, I would say, is immeasurable. We had no playbook before I joined. The players haven't really played together, and we kind of built the roster from scratch. The only players from the previous team were bang and Asuna,loan, bang was on loan, so there was no playbook.
The comps were changing heavily throughout the scene. Chamber started being picked more. So there was a lot of tweaking that we had to do early on. I am super proud of all the progress we've made over the last four months. There's definitely a lot more to do for sure, but the foundation is finally there.
That's the hardest part. It's just like understanding how your teammates are thinking and how they're going to react in certain scenarios. For the most part, I think that has been resolved amongst all the players on the team.
Q: As someone who has spent well over a decade in the esports industry, what are your thoughts on Riot's approach to franchising for Valorant?
sgares: Honestly, I try not to be really consumed with it that much. As an outsider and as someone who's been in the scene for a while, it seems like an org like 100 Thieves would be almost a shoo-in, just because they kind of have an endemic feel to them. They haven't been around as far as Cloud9, CLG, TSM and all these orgs that were just around in the early days, but 100 Thieves has been around for a while.
In addition to that, they are one of the most successful esports organizations, if not the most successful, in the last five years, because of the way they've created content and the way they've brought in influencers and created a focus on their esports programs. They basically have this trifecta going.
Nadeshot, the CEO, is a rare gem when it comes to CEOs in this org space. He understands the games because he plays them. He understands what it feels like to be a pro player. He now has the expertise of being the CEO of a company.
They also have the branding of a clothing line and they just keep bringing in massive influencers. So, it would be shocking to me if 100 Thieves wasn't picked, but I also don't consume myself with that question, so I'm not really sure.
Q: What do you think about a franchise league structure replacing Valorant's existing VCT format?
sgares: I don't think the full details of the franchise league format have been released yet, but as a competitor, I would say that the VCT format is pretty brutal. So I think some changes would have needed to be made.
I think franchising is good for the economy in the industry, as far as being able to provide broadcasting revenue and perhaps create micro-transactions for the teams is considered.
I don't know what Riot's plans are. I have no idea. But there are possibilities in a franchise system that would then allow organizations to be more profitable. And when the water of the entire scene rises like that, it benefits everyone.
I'm optimistic. I don't think Riot has ever done anything where people would go like, "Wow, why would they do that? That makes no sense at all." Typically they have a lot of reasons for what they do, and I trust their reasoning. I'm not going to lie, I think they're very intelligent when it comes to these things.
Q: With a lot of teams leaving the pro scene, the VCT LCQ teams are left with very few scrimming opponents. How much did that affect 100 Thieves' preparation for the VCT NA LCQ?
sgares: Even though several orgs have left the scene, we still haven't been scrimming against the LCQ teams. We haven't played against The Guard, Shopify Rebellion, Evil Geniuses and NRG. We played a couple of scrims against Sentinels, Cloud9 and FaZe, but it's just a small fraction of our scrims that we are playing these guys.
I think it's terrible to see. I would rather there had been some flooring set to the Tier-2 scene so that this wouldn't have occurred. That's the one thing that leaves like a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
I wish the Tier-2 scene would have been a little bit more developed before all of this transpired. There are so many players, coaches, managers, and the infrastructure of an esports team, all of whom ultimately lost their jobs. All these people have put a lot of time and effort into helping build the scene over the last couple of years. Obviously, you'd hate to see that. I'm very sad about that.
Q: As you know, shroud made his VCT debut yesterday. Being one of his former teammates in CS: GO, what are your thoughts on his return to the pro scene at the VCT NA LCQ?
sgares: I thought he played really well. We were practicing at the time. We were playing scrims, but we had it on in the TV in the room. So I was occasionally taking glances at it. Every time I watched his spacing, utility usage and his trading, I thought he did a really good job, given the situations he was put in. I think he made a lot of really good decisions.
This game is unlike Counter Strike at least. It's so different on an esports level. You're going to encounter a barrage of utilities that you might not encounter in a single scrim. So it's not like you can build up reps to understand how to react.
I can tell you he was put in a lot of uncomfortable scenarios, but he's a gamer through and through. He's someone who's always looking to improve his game and evolve. I think this was a very good opening match for Shroud. I mean, I love shroudy, I have nothing but good things to say.
Q: Chamber, one of VCT's most-picked Agents in recent times, is set to undergo a few changes that are likely to alter the way he's played in competitive Valorant. What are your thoughts on this potential nerf?
sgares: I think Chamber is a pretty weird Agent for esports. He kind of breaks the competitive aspect of the esport. It's very difficult to push him out of angles and a lot of utility is just wasted because of that.
He has a get-out-of-jail-free card with his teleport, which is too big of a teleport. His Headhunter is too strong, his ult is too strong. Pretty much his entire kit feels too strong, so I think the nerfs will put him in balance in a nice way. He'll still have the get-out-of-jail-free card, which is obviously really hard to deal with.
But I do respect what Riot was maybe going for. If you want to build an esport that you want everyone in the world to understand and watch, you're going to need to have some Agents that don't have a lot of insane abilities. It was pretty smart of them to release KAY/O into the game, which suppresses abilities, which basically turns it into a Counter Strike game.
They then added Chamber, who has no abilities other than guns and a teleport. So it's very easy for the viewer to watch and understand these Agents. I don't hate that he was added to the game on the game's scale, or even watching the esports scale, but while playing the esport, I don't think he really has a place in the game.
