XSET steamroll 100 Thieves in NA VCT Stage 2, move one step closer to Copenhagen

XSET guaranteed themselves a top-three finish in the NA VALORANT Champions Tour’s second stage, and took one step closer to punching their ticket to Masters Copenhagen, with a 2-0 win against 100 Thieves on Saturday. 

With the win against 100 Thieves, XSET remains in the upper bracket of VCT Challengers 2 playoffs, and need only one more series victory to qualify for the second international LAN of the year. They await the winner of the match between OpTic Gaming and Evil Geniuses to see if their upper bracket run will continue, or if they will fall to the lower bracket. 

Icebox was the opener in the best-of-three series, which was picked by XSET, meaning 100 Thieves would start on defense. Despite early aggression from 100 Thieves grabbing them a 6-1 lead, they were not able to keep XSET from clawing their way back at the end of the half. With the game tied up 6-6, XSET once again overcame a slow start to the half, and showcased why they had selected Icebox. They took the map 13-10 after winning six of the final seven rounds. Cryocells performance on Chamber was the highlight of Icebox, as he dropped a 1.67 K/D with 25 kills. 

100 Thieves selected Ascent as the second map of the series, a map neither team had gotten much playing time on during the group stage. XSET had a near-flawless defensive half on 100 Thieves’ map pick to take a commanding 10-2 lead at the half. With their backs against the wall, 100 Thieves attempted to pull things back, winning the pistol and anti-eco rounds to start the second half. But those few rounds were not enough to start a comeback, as XSET shut down 100 Thieves’ bonus round before easily finishing the map 13-4. Once again it was Cryocells who was the difference-maker during the second map. Using Jett this time around, Cryocells held 100 Thieves back with the Operator and finished with a 3.83 K/D, dropping 23 kills with only six deaths. 

While XSET looks to qualify for Copenhagen in their next match, 100 Thieves have more work to do. They will need to win multiple series if they hope to make their first LAN appearance of 2022.