100 Thieves founder and CEO Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag has addressed rumors of a potential return to Counter-Strike for the organization, as anticipation for Counter-Strike 2 ramps up.
100 Thieves do not have a storied history in CS:GO, but they have had teams in the past and many within the organization are clearly fans of the esport, including Nadeshot himself.
100T first entered CS by acquiring the former Immortals lineup in December 2017, a team featuring the likes of Henrique ‘HEN1’ Teles and Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau, before pulling out of the esport entirely just a month later.
Then, in October 2019, they picked up the Aussies of Renegades, but once again exited the space a year later, and have not been involved since.
With those experiences in mind, Nadeshot has explained that while he loves Counter-Strike, getting back in might not be a feasible possibility any time soon.
“I would love to be in Counter-Strike,” he said. “Right now, the state of esports, everything’s so expensive. There’s been rightsizing when it comes to player salaries and the expectation that agents and managers have of what we’re actually willing to pay. So, unless something changes drastically around the economics of what the expectation is from the organizations, I can’t make any guarantees.
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“Counter-Strike is logistically the hardest game to field a roster in because they travel so much. There are tournaments in Europe and they’ve got to go bootcamp out there, and they’ve got to live out there, and one of the biggest hurdles that we had is that North American CS, a couple of years ago when we got out for the second time, was just in shambles.”
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He went on to say that it’s not impossible to see 100T in CS again, if there’s “more flexibility in the future,” and went on to compare CS:GO to some of the other games in which the organization competes, saying that they made more money from sticker sales than they did in years over a few different leagues that they play in.
While Nadeshot was quick to explain that he would never write off the possibility of getting back into the esport, the timing and financials would have to be right to make a move.