100 Thieves steals a playoff slot with sweep over FUT

The Thieves have officially stolen a playoff slot in Shanghai. 100 Thieves defeated FUT Esports 2-0 to qualify for the playoff stage of Champions 2026, confirming themselves as the second VCT Americas squad to finish 2-0 in the group stage.

Starting on Split, 100 Thieves made a comp change by changing the roles of Asuna , bang , and Cryocells after the team's loss against LOUD in Americas. FUT instead opted for the standard double-Duelist comp, and earned the first pistol win.

However, a force on round two from 100T ended in a 3v1 that FUT lost. It looked like xeus was unable to fire his weapon for a moment, which potentially cost his team the round. A lengthy tech pause ended with the round having gone through, and FUT never recovered from that moment on. Timotino ran through FUT with his signature Neon gameplay, reaching the half up 9-3.

100T won the second pistol to truly put the map out of the reach of FUT. Even a prevented bonus round conversion from FUT was for naught, as the top seed from Americas took Split 13-5.

Map two was Lotus, which 100T chose and ran the same comp from map one. This time, FUT spoke about swapping the agents around, moving s0pp onto Jett and yetujey onto Cypher. Just like map one, FUT earned the first pistol win, but this time also won round two. 100T were victorious on the bonus round, as the gun rounds traded evenly to a 4-4 tie.

A smart tuck from xeus and some Odin gameplay from KROSTALY was a strong way to end the half for FUT, entering the attack side up 8-4.

KROSTALY and sociablEE end the first half of Lotus strong.

100T had to win the second pistol to keep the team competitive on Lotus, and did so alongside a flawless anti-eco to cut FUT's lead to only two rounds. Add to that a bang 1v2 clutch on the bonus, and 100T regained all the momentum for map two. After reaching a 9-9 and 10-10 tie, Timotino and Asuna clutched a close fight on C site. That pivotal round proved to be all for map two, as 100T closed out Lotus 13-10 and the series 2-0.

From the Press Room

FUT yetujey on the tech issue on Split and the conference: "I don't want to be disrespectful to [the press], but I don't care about Riot, so I will not join this." He refused to speak after that.

FUT xeus on the tech issues overall: "These issues have been persisting since the tournament began, and are continuing. The solutions so far are really elementary; they don't work. The round issue happened, I had a Spectre with 30 bullets, but there was no rollback. I couldn't shoot, and that kill would have carried us into a 3-0 start, in a really good position. Technical issues have been happening, like sociablEE having audio issues. I kept on having technical issues, and I just hope that someday, at some point, these issues can be resolved."

100T Nbs on the comp change for this series: “Throughout the year, our team has improved quite a bit. In the middle of the year, we found our footing with Neon and Phoenix. With the balance changes recently, it opened up space for us to try something different. With Cryo on our team, one of the best Chambers in the world, we took a different direction and developed two different playstyles. I'm happy we can play both at a high level.”

100T Asuna on the tech issues: “The tech pauses are unfortunate, but as pro players, we have to deal with all sorts of things. You still have to stay locked in, take every round by round. Both sides were going through it.”

Up Next

Champions Shanghai will continue with the first four elimination matches of the event.

Group C and D will begin, with A and B soon after.

• TYLOO vs. Team Liquid (Group C Elimination)
• Xi Lai Gaming vs. Nongshim Redforce (Group D Elimination)
• Global Esports vs. EDward Gaming (Group B Elimination)
• T1 vs. JD Gaming (Group A Elimination)