100 Thieves Announce VALORANT Roster Changes

After only two official matches, 100 Thieves decided to make roster changes to its Valorant roster. The North American esports organization revealed that Hunter “BabyJ” Schline and Adam “ec1s” Eccles are no longer a part of 100 Thieves.

Roster changes are completely normal in the esports scene, as many teams change players if things aren’t working out. Some wait a bit longer to see whether things will improve and whether their roster will start posting better results, but 100 Thieves are not like that.

Just last month, 100 Thieves announced BabyJ and ec1s as the newest additions to its Valorant roster. The duo joined the core trio in Ethan “Ethan” Arnold, Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk, and Spencer “Hiko” Martin to form a roster that will help 100T make some noise in the 2022 season.

But their tenure with 100 Thieves did not last for long. More precisely, BabyJ and ec1s lasted only 35 days before 100 Thieves announced their departure.

As revealed by the North American esports organization on Monday, February 21, BabyJ and ec1s are no longer members of 100 Thieves.

Interestingly, ec1s and BabyJ have played only two professional matches in the NA VCT Challengers One before 100T decided to release them from the roster. Still, 100T lost both matches, so their departure might be justifiable.

100T first lost against Cloud9 and then against The Guard. The latter match ended in a 13-0 stomp, which led to 100 T’s owner Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag tweeting that his team’s performance was “unacceptable”.

In the announcement which revealed the departure of BabyJ and ec1s, 100 Thieves also unveiled the newest additions to the roster. As announced, 100T acquired Sean “bang” Bezerra and Noah “jcStani” Smith to fill in the gaps and represent the team in the upcoming matches.

Bang joins 100 Thieves on loan from TSM, who benched him from the active roster in September 2021. He has been since seen competing in some lesser Valorant tournaments with various teams.

Most notably, bang won NSG: Frag Valorant Major – Philadelphia and placed top-four at the NSG: Winter Championship – Philadelphia in January with a stack On The Way. He was since competing with Built By Gamers, leading the team to a top-six finish at the VCT 2022: NA Stage 1 Challengers – Open Qualifier 2 at the start of February.

His new teammate, jcStani, arrives at 100 Thieves as a loanee from Pioneers. The 21-year-old joined Pioneers on trial in October 2021 and secured a starting role a month later.

JcStani has been since a key member of the team, with who he has achieved reasonable success in some C-Tier events. Most notably, jcStani helped Pioneers win Community Gaming Valorant Elite Showdown in November and secured a silver medal from NSG: Winter Championship – Open 9 at the end of the year.

Unfortunately, Pioneers struggled to achieve much in 2022. Their best placement was top-eight at Knights Arena Valorampage, while their most recent tournament run ended with a ninth-12th place finish at Nerd Street Gamers: Winter Championship.

While neither of the two newest 100T additions achieved any remarkable success over the last few months, they both performed well in 2021. And it seems 100T felt like they’re upgrades to BabyJ and ec1s.

100 Thieves will debut its new roster in the next round of VCT 2022 NA Challengers 1 on February 27, when they clash with Luminosity Gaming. Having lost both of their group stage matches, another defeat for 100 Thieves could see them eliminated from the playoffs race.

With a 0-2 record, 100 Thieves are tied for last place with Evil Geniuses in Group A, behind Luminosity (1-1), XSET (1-1), Cloud9 (2-0), and The Guard (2-0).

But despite their poor start to the season and roster changes, 100 Thieves are priced as the favorites to win their upcoming match. Esports bookies are offering -250 on 100 Thieves and +175 on Luminosity Gaming, suggesting that 100 Thieves should be in a good spot to bounce back.