100 Thieves promote Tenacity to main roster ahead of 2022 season

After winning the 2021 League Championship Series, 100 Thieves are running it back. All five starting players from the 2021 campaign are returning in 2022 but with a twist. Instead of running a five-man roster, 100 Thieves will be testing out a six-player rotation. Milan “Tenacity” Oleksijwill be splitting time with Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho.

The best in NA just got better. #100T

Introducing your 2022 LCS Main Roster. pic.twitter.com/mfUIserfQO

— 100 Thieves Esports (@100T_Esports) November 16, 2021

100 Thieves promote Tenacity to main roster

100T had a very successful 2021 season with a completely retooled roster. After acquiring four players from Golden Guardians in the last off-season, 100 Thieves used a core of Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun, Ian Victor “FBI” Huangand and Can “Closer” Çelik to rocket them up the standings. After a mid-season mid-lane upgrade with Felix “Abbedagge”  Braun from Schalke 04, 100 stayed at the top, won the LCS, and punched their second-ever trip to Worlds.

At Worlds, the starting roster came one game away from getting into the quarterfinals. They even managed to split games against the Worlds 2021 champions, Edward Gaming. While 100T’s starting roster was competing on stage, the sub they brought with them to Worlds, Tenacity, tore through the EUW solo queue ladder. In fact, at one point he was the highest-rated player on the ranked ladder. That was including all players competing at Worlds 2021.

Tenacity will look to take over the starting role from Ssumday. In 2021, Ssumday was the only player on 100 to not make it onto an all-pro team.  Tenacity will be entering his first split on the main team after playing in the amateur and academy teams for the past two years. He is also only 18 years old and has yet to play on the LCS stage.

Tenacity was a major reason for 100 Thieves Academy’s success through the 2021 season. Although he didn’t play with the team at the 2021 Proving Grounds Summer after joining the main team at Worlds, he left them in good hands after a 2021 Academy Summer Split that saw him top the Damage Per Minute charts among top laners with 565 according to Oracleselixer.com. Even in the spring split, Tenacity finished only second to Team Liquid top laner, Thomas “Jenkins”  Tran.

100 Thieves is making one other new move, but it isn’t a player or a replacement. 100T have also announced they will be bringing in Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez as an assistant coach to complement current head coach Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu. Mithy comes over from Cloud9 where he has been the head coach throughout the 2021 season. Mithy helped lead Cloud9 to a quarterfinals appearance at Worlds 2021.

The 100 Thieves VALORANT roster is also experiencing shifts. We will likely see more details and roster shake-ups as roster-mania continues across several esports.