Cloud9 vs 100 Thieves

Next up, we have a clash between Cloud9 and 100 Thieves. On paper, there's not a lot to like as any match that has Cloud9 in it often ends up being a one-sided shellacking. In actuality, however, this might be a bit more competitive than most people think. That, mainly, depends on 100 Thieves and whether or not they'll draft to their strengths and put Ssumday in a position to hard carry.

The legendary Korean top laner is their biggest catalyst and watching him flex his immense talent and mechanical prowess has always been a thing of beauty. It's like 100 Thieves only just realized they have such a potent weapon, and are shifting more towards their top side of the map, given the fact that everyone else on the team is underperforming more often than not. It's a strange position to be in, that's for sure. They're not exactly a bad team, but watching them play leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth. It's like they're constantly hitting a very palpable skill ceiling, and no matter what they do, no matter which roster moves they make, it's like this team simply isn't destined to leave much of a mark in the grand scheme of things. There's no shame in such a destiny, of course, but it's becoming harder and harder to assess whether they're a mid-tier gatekeeper or a bottom-tier dweller. Whenever we're betting on competitive League, we want to have as much information as possible, and 100 Thieves are especially hard to read right now. They have good moments here and there, but they're too few and far between to actually warrant anyone's benefit of the doubt. The moments of mediocrity are far more frequent and pronounced, which is the main reason why no one's giving them much thought these days. Still, they're a dangerous team (when they double down on their few strengths) and should not be underestimated.

Still, even at their best and strongest, they're just not good enough to compete against a team like Cloud9. Perhaps that's a bad way to phrase things: they *can* compete, but it's just a matter of time before they make an egregious blunder and give Cloud9 an opening. And knowing this 100 Thieves roster, egregious blunders happen non-stop, whether that's a botched turret dive, a badly set-up objective, a shoddy engage, or bad mid-fight target selection, something always pops up and hinders their chances of finding success. Cloud9, in that regard, is the exact opposite. It doesn't matter what happens in game or whom they're up against -- they always find a way to eke out advantages (both individually as well as a team) and snowball their way to victory. Watching them compete and flex their prowess has been an absolute treat, and they've earned their spot at the top. It's no secret that they don't have an actual threat in North America right now. That's why everyone's dying to see them compete on the international stage -- they actually have a shot of doing some damage to the LPL and LEC. But until that day comes, we'll have to watch them run circles around their opposition on home soil.

We're siding with Cloud9 on this one as it's the only logical option. That said, if 100 Thieves give Ssumday a bit of agency (like they did last Friday), they could make this much more competitive than most people expect.