100 Thieves lose to Movistar R7 in North America's first game at Worlds
The road for North America at Worlds 2024 has started out on a rough note. On what was meant to be a day to celebrate the start of the LCS' journey at Worlds, 100 Thieves ended up losing to the LLA's Movistar R7 in an excitement-filled series.
A blast to start NA off at Worlds
100 Thieves came into their opening series at Worlds Play-Ins high on confidence after handily defeating Cloud9 towards the end of their LCS journey.
Movistar R7, led by former LCS MVP Summit in the top lane, wanted to come into the biggest tournament of the year and making the LLA proud. And boy, they did.
Despite 100 Thieves taking the first game of the series in fairly convincing fashion, R7 showed the world they were ready for the biggest stage by answering back in a bloody and unrelenting game 2. 100 Thieves had no answers for R7's clean Orianna and Nocturne mid-jungle pairing.
With North America's pride on the line, the thieves loaded onto the final game of the series eager to show they had done their homework by picking Vex for Quid in the mid lane as an answer to R7's LeBlanc.
Come time to assess, however, 100T got a failing grade.
100 Thieves fall amongst the carnage
Though the Vex pick made perfect sense on paper, R7 were quick to abuse the pick's lack of mobility by constantly showing up in the mid lane in numbers. Only 6 minutes into the game, Quid was already down to an 0/2 start.
100 Thieves managed to even up the game by winning a few crucial team fights in the mid game off the back of River's incredible display on Viego.
In the end, however, gave away too much ground, granting R7 a free Cloud Soul. Leveraging his speed from the buff excellently, Ceo's Lucian picked off Tomo's Jinx with his ultimate. Knocking on the door of the thieves' nexus, R7 flew into battle by combining Wukong and Nami's ultimates and wiping away 100 Thieves.
The series was nothing short of an absolute bloodbath. The two teams' willingness to put it all on the line in search of a ticket to the Main Stage at Worlds truly shone through, as the series ended with a whopping total 123 kills across just three games of play.
The simple truth, however, is that 100 Thieves put up a messy display against what should be a weaker region in their loss to Movistar R7 today. For reference, R7's win today marked the very first time an LLA team has won a series at Worlds.
Meanwhile, across the pond, North American winds carry ehoes of unanswered questions: how did Cloud9 lose to this?
Result: 100 Thieves 1 - 2 Movistar R7
No more room for error
After the crushing and, frankly, surprising loss, 100 Thieves will have to bring their A-game for their next game of the tournament.
Scheduled to play against SoftBank HAWKS on Saturday, September 28th, the LCS' third seed cannot take any more chances. A loss against SHG would mean elimination from the tournament for 100 Thieves, and a quick return trip to North America.
Though the HAWKS showed few signs of life in their loss against GAM Esports, 100 Thieves will need to treat the Japanese team like their ultimate rival, or risk crushing the spirit of many a North American fan.
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Image source: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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