The North American Last Chance Qualifier is down to just three teams. Cloud9 became the latest team eliminated after falling short to 100 Thieves. Now, 100T will have a rematch against FaZe Clan in the LCQ lower bracket final.
The two teams have a back-and-forth history with one another. Recently, FaZe took the upper hand when they dropped 100T to the LCQ lower bracket after a close best of three. Now, 100T have a chance to get revenge in a best of five lower bracket final at 4 p.m. ET on Aug. 13.
“I know we should’ve won last time we played them so I think we’re all confident,” 100T’s Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk said in an interview. “And we also got two matches where we just won back-to-back and we’re feeding off that.”
Besides the big names of their respective organizations, 100T vs. FaZe also has the battle between former teammates — Derrek “Derrek” Ha on 100T vs. Phat “supamen” Le and Kevin “poised” Ngo on FaZe. Both teams have worked hard to be where they are and neither wants to lose out on the chance to qualify for Champions 2022.
For 100T, it doesn’t hurt to have the tape of their last match against FaZe at LCQ to fall back on during their limited preparation time ahead of Saturday’s bout.
“We obviously have a good coaching staff and we’re able to use that to our fullest potential,” Asuna said.
Cloud9 fall short again in LCQ loss to 100T
In spite of a slow start, 100T looked in control for most of their match against C9. Asuna credits his teammate William “Will” Cheng for having a big individual performance, particularly on Map 1 (Ascent.)
“It felt like Will was feeling himself and made the map really easy,” Asuna said.
There wasn’t much C9 could do against the stifling pressure that 100T applied throughout the series. Ultimately, 100T were able to close it out 2-0 with a 13-10 win on Fracture.
“It was a lot of good team work and [utility] from 100 Thieves,” C9’s Mitch “mitch” Semago said. “They played really well.”
2-0 C9, my team carried me on that one, love these guys ❤️
— 100T Asuna (@Asunaa) August 13, 2022
100T have slowly been leveling up over the course of the LCQ event. The team has looked better and better, culminating in their match win against Cloud9. If anything’s going to stop 100T, it may be their own inexperience.
“I’ve been on 100 Thieves two years and I’m not really a leader-type personality,” Asuna said. “I’m more of a passive, I-do-my-own-thing, you know? It’s hard because [Brenden “stellar” McGrath] has to pick that up for a lot of rounds. Same with Derrek. Obviously they themselves don’t have the most experience. So we crack sometimes, but we try our best.”
For Asuna, making Champions means repeating 100T’s success from 2021, where they qualified to Masters Berlin.
“Honestly, it’s just to match last year,” he said. “Going from making one international event to none hurts a little.”
For C9, it’s the end of the road and their 2022 VALORANT Champions Tour season.
“It sucks because we didn’t qualify to a single event this year,” mitch said. “Thank you guys for supporting us. I know we had a rough year, but we’ll be back stronger next year.”
