No.

Seriously, this question shouldn’t even be asked. The team has looked extremely inconsistent so far this split, but they’re not dead. They’re playing poorly, and need to turn things around in the 2nd round robin if they want to even make playoffs. That’s not impossible at all. They did the same thing last year. Entering week 5 of spring 2018, 100 Thieves was sitting at 4-4. If you understand how records work, that means they were 1 game ahead of where they are right now. They ended the first round robin at 4-5, which would be the same record they’ll have this year if they can beat Optic next Saturday. That would lead to an 8-1 end to the split, which would put them in first place. So, what’s the difference?

Well for one, this team has very little synergy (at least on stage). In their last game, a dragon attempt from Anda was stopped, and led to a chase onto 100T. As every member of 100 runs away with low health, Huhi comes in on a teleport flank and puts himself in an awful situation. Worst part is, he flashed into it so he couldn’t get away. That seems to be the story of the season. 1 member thinks they’re playing solo queue and thinks they can make the play. The other 4 can’t decide whether to leave them to die, or help them and die more. Obviously this can be fixed, but it has to be fixed quickly.

There is a vocal group of people that believe the individual talent of 100 Thieves isn’t up to snuff. I personally think that’s complete garbage, but we can take a deep dive into the individual play of each member of the team. Starting with…

Ssumday

I will not stand for Ssumday slander, no matter what. The guy has proven time and time again that he is one of the best top laners in the league. He’s definitely top 3, and could be argued for top 2 (Licorice too good). Unfortunately Oracles Elixir has not updated their stats for week 4 yet. He’s currently 3rd in KDA for top laners, behind Impact and Licorice (according to gamepedia). After week 3 he was 3rd in Kill Participation (same position after week 4) , 1st in Gold Differential at 10, 1st in CSD at 10, and 1st in Damage%. Pretty easy to see that he’s been fine.

AnDa

Reddit hates AnDa. For whatever reason, AnDa is the worst jungler in the world in Reddit’s eyes. He must be absolutely awful right? I’d say probably not. He gets a lot of unjustified hate (likely) for being the replacement for Meteos after the trade. Reddit loves Meteos, which is fine because Meteos is great. But AnDa has been good, not great, so far this season. So why all the hate?

Well his game on Sunday was absolutely dreadful. But in perspective, what more could he have done given the mistakes early? A failed dive that burnt 2 flashes up top, and then getting completely shut down by Rush in his own jungle. He was given Olaf, a champion that is good for about 10 minutes and then might actually be the worst champion in the game after that mark. Did he make mistakes? Yes. Was he put in a position to succeed to begin with? Probably not.

In terms of statistics, it doesn’t look great. He’s tied for 9th in KDA, which is a red flag right off the bat. In context, it might look a little better though. 5 of the 12 junglers have a KDA of 3.00 or better. Half of the junglers (including AnDa) have a KDA between 2.00 and 2.99. None of the players in that pack have a KDA of over 2.70.

It still doesn’t get much better, as his Kill Participation is dead last. He has 25% of the team’s deaths, which is 5th worst in the league (arguably middle of the pack?). He’s tied for fifth in First Blood%.

But not all is bad! AnDa isn’t just good in these following stats, but he LEADS THE LEAGUE in them. That’s right, AnDa is leading the league in Gold Differential at 10, CS Differential at 10, and XP Differential at 10.

So what does all this tell us exactly? Well AnDa has been spectacular in the early game. There’s no doubt about that. However, AnDa starts to falter when it hits the mid-game point. Can this be fixed? I’d like to believe so. Is it worrying to see these issues? Absolutely.

Huhi

This is the only member where I believe all the criticism is actually deserving. Huhi has been bad. Not just bad, like, REAL bad. I shouldn’t have to dive too deep into this. The stats will speak for themselves. 2nd to last in KDA, last in Kill Participation, 3rd worst in Death%, 3rd worst Gold Differential at 10, 4th worst in CS Differential at 10, and last in Damage%. It’s not good. It’s really not good.

Bang

Please stop giving Bang bad champions to play. Ashe and Viktor are pretty bad. Bang is an excellent player, and is performing extremely consistently. Likely the only consistent member of the team right now. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been allowed to show off his skill at any point this season. I don’t understand why. He’s great.

His KDA is 4th in the league, and his Kill Participation is the same. His Death% is best of all ADCs. He’s obviously doing something right here. So where are things going wrong? The answer to that question: laning phase. Bang is dead last in Gold Differential at 10, 3rd last in XP differential at 10, and last in CS Differential at 10. Laning phase has been going incredibly poorly for 100 Thieves. Is it Bang’s fault? Probably not. It still needs to be fixed nonetheless.

Aphromoo

Aphro may be the most criticized member of the team, as he’s had some extremely questionable moments so far this season. Let’s find out if that criticism is actually deserved.

Aphromoo is 2nd to last in KDA, and last in Kill Participation. Not looking too hot so far. He accounts for 27.7% of the teams deaths, highest among supports. A lot of this is attributed to the mid to late game though, so what about laning? Well, he’s 1st in Gold Differential at 10, and 4th in XP Differential at 10. This brings big questions. Should Aphro be roaming more in the early game? Should Aphro look to place deep wards and let Bang sit in lane solo more? Or is Bang the worst laning ADC in the league?

Aphromoo has not been great with the vision game though, which was a strong point of 100 Thieves last year. He’s last in Wards Placed per Minute, and 3rd worst in Wards Cleared per Minute (which is possibly a misleading stat but let’s use it to run with the narrative). What happened to the extremely good vision game 100 Thieves used to have? It had to be run through the support and jungler. Aphro needs to take a step up in the vision game. To be fair, it is hard to place wards when you’re dead more than most other supports.

Pr0lly

We’re not going to just gloss over the coach here. The drafts in week 4 were putrid, so it deserves to look at how the coach is doing. Through the first 4 weeks of the season, it seems clear what the best team comps have. Those things are: multiple great engage tools, AD carries that can supply consistent amounts of damage, and a counter picked top if you don’t get Sion or Urgot.

Looking through all their losses, their team comp always had MAXIMUM of 1 champion with good engage. Never more, one time less. You simply can’t win with just 1 engage tool. If that engage doesn’t land on a good target, you lose the fight. For each of their wins, they’ve had at least 2 good engage/disengage champions. Two wins had a Camille and Braum with a Ryze. The other had Lissandra and Alistar. This needs to be a priority in drafting, and there has been none of it in their losses.

They’ve certainly picked bad champions for Bang more than they should’ve. As stated before, Ashe and Viktor aren’t good champions for Bang, unless the team has another consistent damage source (like Cassiopeia). AD carries are crucial to the meta right now, you can’t take one of your best players out of the game like this.

Other than the bad Viktor game, the top lane picks were fine until this weekend. Ssumday was given a first pick Sylas and a first pick Jayce in the two games this past weekend. Sion was not banned in round 1 in either game, which makes it more insane. Sion is the best pure tank in the game. Urgot was banned in both games too, so Sion would be allowed to play with nearly no issue. Why first pick 2 champions that are mainly meant to be counter picks? I don’t understand the logic.

Overall

So, is 100 Thieves dead? I still say no, they are not. Do they need to get their act together? Yes, and quickly. They’re trying to outsmart other teams in their drafts, and that hasn’t worked at all. In game it seems like they’re playing solo queue. If they can find a way to work as a team, they will be able to make playoffs easily. The entire LCS is a mess right now. Take advantage while you can.