100 Thieves Nearing BabyJ Signing

100 Thieves are reportedly nearing the signing of Hunter “BabyJ” Schline to its Valorant esports roster. As multiple sources have confirmed, the former FaZe Clan player is expected to join 100T in the coming days.

The reports of BabyJ signing come in the wake of several outings from 100 Thieves. The North American esports organization has recently parted ways with three of its members, leaving the team with only three players on the active roster.

The roster moves started in September when 100 Thieves benched Joshua “steel” Nissan in favor of Aaron “b0i” Thao and Johann “seven” Hernandez, who joined the team as a substitute. In November 100T expanded its roster with Hector “FrosT” Rosario, but failed to find any roster stability.

Just two weeks later, 100T parted ways with Quan “dicey” Tran and b0i and released steel in December. Roster changes continued, with the departure of Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella and seven, who left for T1 last weekend.

With that, 100 Thieves are left with only three active members on its Valorant esports roster. However, according to recent reports, Spencer “Hiko” Martin, Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk, and Ethan “Ethan” Arnold are set to receive a new teammate shortly.

As reported this week, 100 Thieves are finalizing the signing of BabyJ, who is set to sign the contract ahead of the NA VCT 2022 season. 100 Thieves will mark BabyJ’s only third stop in his Valorant esports career, which started in June 2020.

The 23-year-old first appeared in a professional Valorant scene midway through 2020, when he joined a North American stack Prospects. The team achieved plenty of success early and successfully qualified for T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Invitational.

Unfortunately, BabyJ and co. couldn’t show up at the tournament and finished in last place. They suffered a 0-2 defeat against the eventual champions Gen.G and got eliminated from the event by Team Shroud.

Prospect collected two silver medals from Nerd Street Gamers – Open #13 and the Pittsburgh Knights Valorant Rumble by the end of the year before the team disbanded in June. After a nearly one-year break, BabyJ returned to Valorant pro scene with FaZe Clan, who signed him in June 2021.

At FaZe, BabyJ replaced Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen and teamed up with Corey “corey” Nigra, Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo, Andrej “babybay” Francisty, and Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty.

With FaZe, BabyJ achieved plenty of success early, placing second at the VCT 2021: North America Stage 3 Challengers 2. But unfortunately, things turned sour quickly, as FaZe fell flat in the Stage 3 Challengers playoffs (5th-6th) and failed to qualify for the NA Last Chance tournament.

As a result, FaZe opted to rebuild its roster and parted ways with BabyJ in November. The 23-year-old has been since them teamless and hasn’t participated in an official match since October 2021.

Joining 100 Thieves gives BabyJ a chance for a new start as he looks to relaunch his Valorant esports career. After achieving only middling success with Prospects and FaZe, 100T provide BabyJ with an excellent opportunity to compete for the top honors.

As an organization, 100T could only manage one tournament title in 2021, when they won VCT 2021: North America Stage 2 Challengers 1 in April. However, 100T consistently competed for top spots and ended the season as the region’s third-highest-rated team.

Besides winning Stage 2 challengers, 100T also claimed bronze at Stage 3 Challengers and silver in the playoffs. Most notably, 100T finished top-four at Masters Berlin but unfortunately came short of qualifying for the 2021 VALORANT Champions with a third-place finish in the last chance qualifiers.

With the departure of nitr0 and seven, the level of success 100T will manage to achieve in 2022 remains a mystery. However, we only need to wait a couple of weeks to see the new-look roster in action.

100 Thieves will debut its new Valorant esports roster in the upcoming NA VCT tournament, slated for January 27.