100 Thieves picked up their first win of the Rift Rivals group stage with a methodical victory over Splyce.
The European LCS guaranteed a group stage win and side selection in tomorrow’s finals with G2’s dominant win against Team Liquid earlier today. Despite this, 100 Thieves and Splyce approached the last game of the first round of Rift Rivals seriously, with both drafting traditional team compositions centered around marksmen.
The game started out relatively slowly, with only one kill occurring in the first 15 minutes. The Thieves managed to build a slight lead in the laning phase, and a poor engage around the Rift Herald by Splyce support Raymond “kaSing” Tsang led to four kills for the Thieves and none for the European side. 100 Thieves then played a slow and methodical game to close out Splyce, highlighted by a well-executed Baron bait.
Both teams came into the game without a win during Rift Rivals and had been severely outclassed by the other squads present. 100 Thieves specifically came under fire, since substitute players top laner Brandon “Brandini” Chen and jungler Đỗ “Levi” Duy Khánh both had a poor showing during the first day of the tournament. Brandini looked unstoppable on Dr. Mundo, though, routinely taking one-vs-three fights against Splyce, and Levi found numerous picks on high-priority targets with his Skarner.
Although the last match of the group stage had no impact on the final standings since Europe had already won five out of nine games, 100 Thieves’ victory bodes well for tomorrow when the two regions face off in a relay-style finals.
