In an announcement about the 100 Thieves Valorant roster for 2023, the 100T General Manager, Daniel ‘ddk’ Kapadia, and head coach, Michael ‘Mikes’ Hockom, discussed the offseason and why they chose to sign Matthew ‘Cryocells’ Panganiban.
100 Thieves have not had an extremely active offseason ahead of the 2023 VCT season. 100T only made one significant signing in Cryocells who replaced William ‘Will’ Cheng on the roster.
The organization had the opportunity to sign one of the best Valorant players in the world in Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker but passed on the opportunity.
The organization picking Cryocells over the current Cloud9 player has been an ongoing debate among Valorant fans that was even addressed by the 100 Thieves CEO.
100T ddk addresses Cryocells signing
In the announcement, ddk directly addressed the public perception that 100T missed out on signing yay and then picked up Cryocells.
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According to the 100T General Manager, the team thought it was best to bring in the young talent over the established star.
“Although I think both players would make an incredible addition whichever way you went. Cryo for us, I think, we felt like was the best fit,” ddk said. “We are very excited regarding Cryo’s skill sets. It’s just he’s a player that can instantly react, has a very high mechanical skill ceiling and I think we are looking for that increased pace in our position.”
The 100T General manager went on to say that the pace Cryocells brings to the squad should “trickle down” to the rest of the team. He said that this was one of the more exciting things he was looking forward to seeing in the team in the future.
Ultimately, 100 Thieves are betting on youth in their Valorant team. The current squad has a majority of players that got their first big break on an esports team in Valorant. The oldest player currently on the roster is the IGL, Brenden ‘stellar’ McGrath.
