During the official announcement video for the CS:GO roster, 100T founder and owner Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag expressed why he was so set on returning to the Counter-Strike scene, and why his organization went with the Australian roster.
When one door closes, another opens, as the saying goes. For 100 Thieves, they went a step further, and forced open a door that shut in their face two years ago.
On October 31st, 100 Thieves acquired the Renegades CSGO roster. Jared ‘DeKay’ Lewis was the first to report last month that the Renegades players’ contracts were near expiration, and broke the news today that 100T had recently purchased the mostly Australian lineup.
Renegades announced later on that their roster was leaving, followed by an announcement video from Nadeshot and 100T VP of Esports Jacob ‘Maelk’ Toft-Andersen breaking down the acquisition.
A message to the CS:GO community: https://t.co/y52ksTyjH8 pic.twitter.com/y4A3IjrHAC
— 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) October 31, 2019
In the video, the two go through each of the players they just acquired, and Nadeshot also explains why 100T pursued this roster, and why he specifically wanted to get back into CS:GO.
According to Nadeshot and Maelk, they considered a number of options for creating a team, including compiling a roster of free agents, luring away other big stars with big contract offers, and purchasing an entire roster. After the Berlin major, they were rumored to be in talks with both NBK and aleksib.
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They opted to go with acquiring the Renegades roster because the players expressed a lot of interest in playing for 100T, and were more than willing to move to the new 100T headquarters in Los Angeles. The players even expressed disappointment that the organization didn’t go with them back in 2017.
This is in reference to the short-lived 2017 CS:GO campaign for 100 Thieves, when the organization acquired the Brazilian ex-Immortals lineup, but weren’t able to keep the roster due to visa issues and having to remove Vito ‘kNgV-‘ Giuseppe due to offensive language he used online.
As for his goals, Nadeshot laid them out clearly in the video: get back into CS:GO and win championships. The CEO said that CS:GO has the most passionate esports fanbase, due to being one of the longest-lasting games in esports. According to him, CS:GO has been part of the plan since 100 Thieves’ inception three years ago.
“There’s just so much history, so many storylines, so many players and organizations that have been here before us,” Nadeshot says in the video. “And I’m so damn excited to able to participate in it again.”
After recently announcing that 100 Thieves will be stepping back from Call of Duty and not participating in the franchised league, we can expect 100T and Nadeshot to go all-in on their new CS:GO division.