100T shock Group A with dominant win over XSET at NA VCT

The Thieves steal a huge win with massive playoff implications.

Professional VALORANT player Asuna celebrating at a tournament.
Photo via Riot Games

100 Thieves’ VALORANT resurgence continued today with a stunning victory over XSET in the NA VCT Stage Two main event group stage. Group A is now wide open for virtually any of the six teams to make the playoff stage, or even claim the top seed.

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100T came out strong on XSET’s Breeze pick, and looked cool under pressure on defense, taking away map control from XSET’s attack side and winning scrappy gunfights on sites. It was the Will and Asuna show on the 100T side, with 29 combined first half kills between the two en route to a 9-3 lead at half-time. 100T got off to a great start in the second half, with Will and Stellar anchoring a 2v4 post-plant on B to secure the pistol round. Will’s knives carried 100T over the finish line on Breeze, via an impressive 13-4 scoreline.

XSET answered back on Bind, punishing the 100T attack side early on with well-placed utility, deadly crossfire setups, and several impressive Operator kills coming from Cryo on Chamber. But 100T had an answer themselves, switching to more aggressive and successful executes to turn what looked to be a runaway XSET half into only a 5-7 deficit. 100T were able to win pistol round, and even more importantly won their bonus round to take an 8-7 lead and break the XSET bank. 100T held onto their lead despite trading round wins with XSET, sealing the series victory with a 13-9 win on Bind.

With 100 Thieves’ victory, they now technically own the top spot in Group A, since they hold the tiebreaker over the only other 2-1 team, XSET. Following the results of NRG and Ghost’s meeting this Sunday, May 29, there will be exactly three 2-1 teams and three 1-2 teams at the conclusion of week three.

As a reminder, four teams from each group will advance out of playoffs, but seeding is more important this stage than last, with the top seed starting in the upper bracket second round, and the fourth seed beginning in the lower bracket.

Author
Image of Scott Robertson
Scott Robertson
VALORANT lead staff writer, also covering CS:GO, FPS games, other titles, and the wider esports industry. Watching and writing esports since 2014. Previously wrote for Dexerto, Upcomer, Splyce, and somehow MySpace. Jack of all games, master of none.