Coming into the 2020 season, we knew that it wouldn’t take much to stand out from the bottom of the barrel in the LCS. And now, after two weeks of play, 100 Thieves is doing enough to tread water and keep steady with the pack. With four games in the books, 100 Thieves’ 2-2 record is good enough for a share of 4th place in the league, and if the split were to end today, the team would secure a playoff berth, if not, at least a tiebreaker.

And while winning every game you possibly can is important in the long term, there’s no reason to worry about 100 Thieves’ 2-2 start to the year just yet. In fact, a .500 record should be considered somewhat of a victory in the league’s currently volatile landscape. With 7 teams placing 2-2 or better after two weeks of play, it’s going to be important for 100 Thieves to define themselves in the coming weeks. While splitting a given week’s schedule is good enough to keep steady for now, there’s going to have to be a moment in the future where the team breaks out on a run to the top of the ladder.

Keep an eye on week 5 as a potential standout point in 100 Thieves’ season, as a potentially forgiving schedule against TSM and Golden Guardians could result in a 2-0 week. Beyond then, it wouldn’t be totally unviable for 100 Thieves to keep splitting weeks with their opponents and playing up to snuff. Last year, teams like Echo Fox and OpTic Gaming were able to sneak into playoffs with records of 8-10 while many more were able to secure berths at an even 9-9.

While there were certainly some missed opportunities for 100 Thieves so far this split – especially a coughed-up contest against Evil Geniuses – there’s no reason to worry about a 2-2 record at this stage of the game.

In fact, even when compared to the other teams that currently stand at 2-2 – Immortals, TSM, and Team Liquid – 100 Thieves has showcased the fact that they can stand toe to toe in many statistical categories. The team outranks TSM and Immortals in GPM with a mark of 1648 while the team’s 9.3 kills per game are higher than those of IMT and TL. Additionally 100T leads the league in First Tower Rate as they’ve downed the first turret of the game 75% of the time this year.

So while they may be landlocked right in the middle of the standings, there’s reason to be hopeful for the Thieves moving forward. As long as the team wins a few here and a few there, they have just as good a shot as any to reach the playoffs. Of course, securing a bye should be the ultimate goal when it comes to the postseason, but as long as 100 Thieves plays at this pace, there’s no reason to believe they won’t make it into the Spring playoffs with ease.

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