League of Legends star William ‘Meteos’ Hartman had a messy, and public, split with 100 Thieves two years ago, but the former LCS champion admits key changes behind the scenes for the org opened the door for him to return.
100 Thieves got their Spring campaign in the LCS off to a good start last Saturday, defeating Golden Guardians in a “messy” 14–12 battle. The squad then went on to fall at the hands of title contenders Evil Geniuses during Monday Night League.
Despite a mixed 1–1 record, the 100T roster looked to be working together well, bedding in new recruits like Tommy ‘Ryoma’ Le, and returning stars Cody Sun and Meteos, the latter of whom revealed he’s “so happy” he made the decision to return.
According to the two-time champion, who floated through rosters with FlyQuest and OpTic Gaming before returning to 100T, he was “happy to come back” to Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag’s organization after some backroom changes.
“I was pretty excited when I was asked back, they got PapaSmithy and Zikz, so I thought it would be a really good combination,” Meteos explained in a post-match interview. The jungler added he “liked the org’s brand,” so that helped too.
As well as the coaching changes, which had seen LCK icon Chris “Papasmithy” Smith take the reigns of the LoL roster, Meteos admitted a mostly revamped roster with the org was something that interested him a lot.
While Cody Sun and Kim ‘Ssumday’ Chan-ho were also involved in the same 2017-18 roster as Meteos, other figureheads like Ryu ‘Ryu’ Sang-wook, Zaqueri ‘aphromoo’ Black, and most notably former coach Neil ‘pr0lly’ Hammad had departed.
“This team is a lot more fun I guess,” Meteos said. “Not to say the other one wasn’t, really, but sometimes the mood would be really kind of dull, and here [this split] we all really like each other and get along well. It’s been a really fun time.”
First W of the season 💯 #100WIN #LCS pic.twitter.com/okoVDeOfqS
— 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) January 26, 2020
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Perhaps the biggest difference from the 26-year-old’s last tenure is PapaSmithy’s swap from proven import quantity in the mid lane, to Australian recruit Ryoma. The Oceanic Pro League star has faced some heat in his opening week and LCS debut, which Meteos disagrees with.
“I didn’t know much about Ryoma before I started playing with him, but he’s a really good dude, and an insanely good player,” Meteos said of his Aussie teammate.
“He’s not as experienced as a lot of players we’re playing up against in terms of team macro and vision, but he’s learning really fast, so he’s definitely someone to keep an eye on. We’ve all been learning and re-learning the game together.”
For mobile readers, the related segment begins at 56:48 in the video below.
With renewed backroom staff, a host of returning star players, and a huge new esports facility right in the heart of Los Angeles to boot, it looks like 100 Thieves could be in pole-position to bounce back from their 2019 struggles.
Meteos and 100 Thieves return to the Rift again on Saturday night, facing Counter Logic Gaming (0–2) in the weekend’s opening clash.
