After the 2015 Call of Duty Championship, Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag retired from competitive Call of Duty following his disappointing 7th/8th finish with OpTic Gaming. One year later, before stage 2 of the Call of Duty World League for Black Ops III, Nadeshot finalized his departure from the OpTic Gaming organization by creating his own. Announced on his YouTube channel, 100 Thieves was birthed with the fielding of their Call of Duty team. Captained by Nadeshot’s longtime rival Aches, the 100 Thieves Call of Duty team entered CWL Stage 2 but failed to achieve any success. Aches left the team before the Call of Duty Championship, and 100 Thieves left competitive Call of Duty. Upon leaving, 100 Thieves branched out and started competing in League of Legends, Clash Royale, and Fortnite.
The time has finally come…
100 THIEVES ENTERS CALL OF DUTY
Welcome to the team @100T_KuavoKenny & @100T_Fero.
More news to follow. #100T pic.twitter.com/5H8Pkk41pA
— 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) August 29, 2018
The wait for the return of 100 Thieves to competitive Call of Duty is over. With the additions of Kenny and Fero, the foundation has been built for a potential new dynasty. One year ago, however, people barely knew who these two were. Who are they? Where did they come from?
Kenny
One of the most successful breakout stars of the Call of Duty: WWII season, Kenny rose to stardom immediately on Team Kaliber. Playing the main sub role, Kenny became integral to Team Kaliber’s early success, resulting in back-to-back major wins to kick off the season. Many people began to consider Kenny one of the best players in the game. The team would lose momentum, however, and failed to maintain their dominance. Team Kaliber would undergo a roster change halfway through the season, dropping veterans Theory and Chino to pick up rising stars Methodz and Fero. After one event, Methodz left Team Kaliber to join OpTic Gaming, so Enable was picked up as his replacement.
Fero
Renowned for his Search and Destroy prowess online, Fero joined Era Eternity at the beginning of the WWII season and found success alongside teammates Ricky, Bevils, and Decemate. They had a decent showing at CWL Stage 1, finishing 5th in their division. Unfortunately, the Era Eternity organization collapsed after Bevils revealed they had not paid salaries to their players. Their futures uncertain, the former Era team played one last event together. Blazt replaced Bevils, and the squad went on to finish 5th/6th. Immediately following the event, the players were poached by notable organizations. Ricky and Blazt went to compLexity, Decemate went to Team Envyus, Fero went to Team Kaliber, and Bevils became the coach for Evil Geniuses.
Team Kaliber
Starting off stage 2 of the pro league strong, Team Kaliber proved themselves a top-tier team, finishing second in Division A behind Red Reserve. They only showed one weakness: Search and Destroy. Ironically, as good as Fero was at Search, Enable proved to be quite the opposite. He became a popular meme in the community, with many calling him “Disable.” The trend of Search and Destroy sufferings continued into stage 2 playoffs, but Team Kaliber’s respawn dominance ensured a quick path to the Grand Final against Rise Nation. They started strong, with Kenny playing up to his usual fantastic standard and Fero putting up the best performance of his career. However, Team Kaliber would find themselves in game 5, round 11 of Search and Destroy, with Enable only finding one kill in the entire map. Unsurprisingly, Rise Nation clutched up, forcing a second best of five.
Refusing to let the momentum shift to Rise, Team Kaliber continued to grind away. Fero began to escalate his game. Kenny put up an MVP performance. Up 2-1 in the second series, Team Kaliber closed the tournament out on the game 4 Hardpoint. Fero had the first win of his career, Enable had his first win of the year, and Accuracy and Kenny had their third wins in WWII.
Call of Duty Championship
One of the two favorites to take the championship, Team Kaliber walked into the MLG Arena in Columbus dripping in confidence. It took one match to humble them. In what many called a grudge match, Team Kaliber faced Lightning Pandas, Enable’s former team. Enable’s replacement was Theory, the former captain of Team Kaliber at the beginning of the season. Lightning Pandas went on to beat Team Kaliber 3-2, giving them the second seed in the group. Because of their second seed in the group, Team Kaliber had to play the first seed of another group. That first seed just so happened to be Rise Nation.
Team Kaliber beat Rise Nation with relative ease, sending them to the losers bracket. Due to Luminosity’s first-round loss to Elevate, Rise faced a difficult match they could not overcome. With the other favorite out of the picture, it looked like smooth sailing for Team Kaliber. They breezed through the winners bracket until they matched up against Evil Geniuses in the winners bracket final. Evil Geniuses shocked the world by defeating Team Kaliber 3-1, sending them to the losers bracket final to face Faze Clan. Team Kaliber squeaked by with a 3-2 win, meeting Evil Geniuses in the grand final.
After going down 2-0, Team Kaliber turned the tides and went on to reverse sweep Evil Geniuses in the first best of five series. The audience began to shift favor to Team Kaliber. However, despite their best efforts, Team Kaliber failed to win a single map in the second best of five, leading Evil Geniuses to capture the coveted trophy.
Postseason
Every year, following the conclusion of the Call of Duty championship, new rosters form. “Rostermania” occurs. Hints and little breadcrumbs are dropped. Immediately after announcing their departure from Team Kaliber, 100 Thieves tweeted their new additions: Fero and Kenny, one half of the new team. The magnifying glass is now focused on Nadeshot. Who will join them? Karma? Formal? Gunless? Will Nadeshot compete again? The 100 Thieves roster move is just the tip of the iceberg. Because these two top prospects moved, the player base of pros has shifted. Anything can happen in the next few months.
