There were some doubters surrounding 100 Thieves and their hold on the LCS following the team’s unceremonious loss against FlyQuest during the first week of the 2022 LCS Lock In. This week, however, the defending LCS champions were determined to wash away any hesitance with a crushing victory against Cloud9.

With this win, 100 Thieves has locked in first place in group A with a 3-1 record. The team will now be matched up with the fourth seed of group B due to the tournament’s formatting, which should be decided by the end of the day. But looking back at this match, multiple players on this roster showed up in a big way.

For example, the Thieves’ star jungler Closer shone brightly in the golden armor of Jarvan IV, picking up five kills and eight deaths without dying. His great decision-making and pathing in the early stages of the game were important in putting his laners ahead, while his fearless engages in the mid-to-late game were key to giving his carries free time to deal damage to C9’s relatively squishy team composition.

Ssumday was also a menace on Gwen and was a catalyst for a game-changing teamfight near the dragon pit. While he distracted and soaked up damage from Darshan and Fudge, the rest of 100 Thieves collapsed onto Blaber, Zven, and Isles, who could only watch as Jarvan and Leona chained their crowd control alongside massive damage from Corki and Aphelios. This led to a five-for-zero ace, and the game quickly snowballed out of control into a 100 Thieves victory.

Many people did expect 100 Thieves to be strong heading into 2022 since they were the only top team to keep their entire roster for the previous year intact. That championship-level synergy and trust were seen today, while it was clear that C9 still had to build coordination among its new members. It also doesn’t help that the team is missing three of its starting players due to immigration delays.

Looking ahead, 100 Thieves are expected to make a run for their first Lock In trophy. They do have another best-of series later this weekend when they play in the quarterfinals of the event.

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