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100 Thieves has qualified for Valorant Champions and will be the last North American team heading to the world championship in Istanbul, Turkey, later this year. The team will be joining OpTic Gaming and XSET in the upcoming event. The Guard was one of the favorites in the Last Chance Qualifier but it was 100 Thieves that managed to write its comeback story after a number of failures in recent events.
100 Thieves' comeback story and The Guard's fall
The Guard was one of the most dominant teams in the 2022 Valorant Champions Tour circuit so far and it put on solid performances in every event it participated in but ultimately fell short. During the Last Chance Qualifier, The Guard made it to the finals via the upper bracket but it could not seal the deal as 100 Thieves proved to be the better team last night.
100 Thieves entered the Valorant scene in 2020 and the organization decided to shuffle things up in the team after a disappointing run in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2021: North America (NA) Last Chance Qualifier last year and once again at the VCT 2022: North America Challengers 1 - Group Stage. The team had players entering and leaving as 100 Thieves tried to shape its roster in 2022 hoping for a turnaround.
100 Thieves faltered in previous LAN events but the team has finally redeemed itself. Although, the current roster is far from what the original team looked like. Peter "Asuna" Mazuryk is the only member in 100 Thieves who has been with the roster since the start. There has been a lot of reshuffling over the months and the team will be looking to prove itself on the international stage in Istanbul.
During the official post-match conference, The Guard’s head coach Matthew “mCe” Elmore said “I don’t know what happened. A lot of it was trying to get people to talk, to have fun, to actually get people to play the video game instead of phoning in a performance.”
Despite the loss, The Guard is one of the best teams of this year and fans will be excited to see how the team performs in the 2023 season. Valorant Champions is set to kick off in September, where 100 Thieves has a shot at becoming the second Valorant world champion.
