100 Thieves victory at Red Bull Home Ground was overwhelmingly dominant, and here’s why

100 Thieves has always been an underdog in the North American Valorant scene when compared to other regional powerhouse teams. So the Valorant community worldwide was pleasantly surprised with their undefeated performance during Red Bull Home Ground that saw the NA team power through the final major Valorant event of 2022.

This was the first time that a North American team had been invited to play against European squads in a Home Ground event, and they proved their worth and skill through an undefeated streak in Manchester, England. It was one of the most dominant performances in Valorant event history. But just how dominant was is? We've broken down some of the incredible stats posted by the NA squad.

The two North American teams invited to Red Bull Home Ground featured seven members of 100 Thieves and nine members of Cloud9. Both the teams surprised and dominated their opponents through the tournament to match up in the Grand Finals.

Yet despite Cloud9 making it to the Top 2, they lost their first match to FOKUS during the group stages. Despite this, they bounced back to win their following games against KRÜ Esports & Team Vitality. This secured them a spot in the semi-finals. In comparison, in Group B, 100 Thieves became the only undefeated team throughout the entire event.

In every match, 100 Thieves kept consistent agent compositions on each map. Some agents weren't used at all while others were utilized more. The most-used agent was Omen at eight games, followed by Fade and Chamber at seven games. Which is not surprising, as they both had the highest pick rates at the Red Bull Home Ground main event.

100 Thieves' least utilized agents were Astra, Neon and Sage at one game played each. Yoru and Harbor were not used in any of their games played.

Overall, 100T's compositions relied on strong meta picks, rather than comfort or niche agent choices. It's an obvious decision, but one that helped lead them to victory. And dominant victories at that.

All members of the 100 Thieves team managed to dominate and overpower the other teams with the highest KDA average, individually and as a group. A majority of the current Valorant roster was formed on April 14, when Derrek, Stellar, and Will joined. Cryocells joined on Sep. 29, but the newer addition made a huge impact.

During Red Bull Home Grounds, out of all the team members, Cryocells gathered a total of 258 kills. In terms of total kills and assists, Cryocells had a total of 286, while Derrek had 294 followed by bang with 303, Asuna with 304 and Stellar with 277. During the last A-tier tournament, Champions Tour North America Stage 2: Challengers, 100 Thieves only managed to place fifth to sixth. In that event, the overall contribution of each player was far less even. However, each team member definitely contributed to the victory at Home Grounds with some incredible overall stats.

Cryocells managed to obtain the highest maximum kills in a game at 35, along with the highest first kill rating at 56. During the Champion Tour, Cryocells was in another team, XSET, and scored a maximum of 35 kills within a game with 50 first kills. This pickup is clearly a power move by 100 Thieves, who have added an absolutely insane fragger to their roster.

A majority of those statistics for both tournaments were during his use of Chamber, who had just received the most nerfs to his character on Dec. 6, 2022. However this clearly did not affect his performance despite it being right at the start of Red Bull Home Ground.

Another crucial part of 100 Thieves dominance was their map picks, which adapted throughout the event and gave them the upper-hand almost every time.

On the Dec. 9, Round One of the Red Bull Home Ground began and eight teams battled one another. In this round of matches, 100 Thieves faced Team Heretics. The two teams faced each other in three maps: Ascent, Haven, and Fracture, ending at a 2-1. 100 Thieves' pick was Ascent while Team Heretics picked Haven. Despite that, both teams lost on their pick, with stats even to one another throughout.

During the Champions Tour and Red Bull Home Ground, 100T played Fracture during their first matches. However, the team clearly learnt to adapt their picks to their skills and needs, based on the opponents they are facing.

For example, they played almost the same composition on Fracture that FaZe played against them during the North American Champions Tour. Later on in the playoffs during the semi-finals, 100 Thieves played Fracture once more, against Team Vitality. Again they used a similar composition to great effect and claimed another victory.

This shows that 100T have learnt to adapt their picks to the opponents they are facing.

The next day, on Dec. 10, 100 Thieves played three games against Team Liquid on Haven, Ascent, and Breeze. 100 Thieves' pick on this match was Haven while Team Liquid's pick was Ascent.

Unlike Match 1 on the previous day, the teams won on their map picks. Cryocells dominated Team Liquid with Jett on all three maps and accumulated an overall KDA of 62/39/9, which is relatively even with Team Liquid's Jamppi's 62/49/8. Asuna followed behind with a 44/37/34 and a 43/41/27 KDA by Derrek.

In spite of losing Ascent previously to XSET during the Champions Tour, with this line-up, 100 Thieves maintained a positive score on the map this time. This time, the team consisted of Omen, Jett, Kay-o, and Killjoy, with a minor change of Sova for Fade. This cost them the round but not the match against Team Liquid.

During the third round, on Breeze, they maintained a similar composition to their match against FAZE during the Champions Tour despite losing that match. They maintained a pick of Jett, Kay-o, Sova, Cypher, and Viper, with Cryocells on Jett. This clearly paid off as it won them their game. Cryocells got his highest number of kills in a match during this round.

During the semi-finals, 100 Thieves faced Team Vitality on Pearl and Fracture. Cryocells took the field with Chamber on both maps, dominating the opposing team. On Team Vitality's map pick, Pearl, 100 Thieves emerged victorious at 14-12. Cryocells played Chamber, scoring a KDA of 31/18/1.

During 100 Thieves' map pick, Fracture, they took the victory with a score of 13-5 with Cryocells playing Chamber once again, leading the match with a KDA of 22/7/1 followed closely by Raze, played by Asuna on 18/9/4. With a total KDA of 53/25/2, Cryocells led 100 Thieves to victory in the semi-finals and secured the first spot in the finals.

Finally, on Dec. 12, the two North American, C9 and 100T, met on the stage for the battle to claim victory.

On Bind, 100 Thieves took victory at a score of 13-10 with bang leading the team with Brimstone at 31/14/4. On Fracture, Cryocells took the lead once more on Chamber with a KDA of 22/9/2, ending the round at 13-9. It seems the team learnt a lot of from their match against FNATIC during Valorant Champions 2022. Changes made after that series after their lost to when they lost to them on Bind. They took on an exact team lineup consisting of Brim, Viper, Raze, Chamber & Skye.

During Round 2, the two teams played 100 Thieves' map pick, Fracture. They played an exact lineup to their match against Team Vitality the day before. They maintained what they know will bring them the win from a combination of games they've played. Cryocells led the team to victory on Chamber with 22 kills and 8 first kills. The round ended on 13-9, giving 100 Thieves a lead of 2-0, giving Cloud 9 one last chance to comeback.

On the final match of the series, 100 Thieves took victory after a round on Icebox, taking victory at 13-3. This win ended the third instalment of the Red Bull Home Ground series.

It seems 100 Thieves has been smart about the decisions they have made with this new roster. With half a year of development, and adding Cryocells to their roster, the team has become a well-oiled machine. They learned from their past wins and losses, big or small, and came out victorious at Home Ground.

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