Top Australian CS:GO squad 100 Thieves have started their IEM New York campaign perfectly with a 2-0 sweep of RBG. It comes after a blistering run at ESL Pro League Season 12, where they ended up as runners-up to Brazilian team Furia.
The odds leaned heavily in favour of the Aussies, whose accolades and recent achievements far outweigh those of the second-tier NA squad.
RBG chose to take the fight to 100T on Nuke in the first map, grinding out a healthy T-side score of five rounds considering their opponent. The Aussies showed some weakness, appearing to get caught out with aggressive plays by the T-side, but overall kept control of the match.
With only six rounds required to win Nuke in regulation, Justin “jks” Savage led the charge alongside Joakim “Jkaem” Myrbostad and Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai who each converted multi-kill rounds with the Tec-9 into wins. The boys squeezed out the rounds required for the win relatively comfortably, taking the map 16-12.
On their own map pick of Vertigo, the Thieves looked to be in their element, suffocating RBG’s ability to play the CT side. Strong map presence and a potent Aaron “AZR” Ward led to a 12-3 T half as RBG struggled to put rounds on the board. The Aussie squad did not leave the game to chance, closing it out 16-4 and securing their first win in the event.
.@100Thieves find their rhythm on Vertigo locking down the 2-0 against @RBG_Esports! 💪 #IEM pic.twitter.com/bky0B9Gdex
— Intel®ExtremeMasters (@IEM) October 7, 2020
The win puts the Thieves ahead in Group B, where the top three teams will progress to bracket play. They’ll be aiming for the top seed to try and get fast-tracked into the semi finals.
100 Thieves are expected to do well in Group B, with Team Liquid being their greatest challenge. Meanwhile, awaiting them in group A is Evil Geniuses and recent Pro League champions Furia.
Furia and Evil Geniuses started their own IEM New York campaign strong too, with sweeps over Rebirth and Triumph respectively. Liquid is yet to play, with their first match against Brazil’s Team One lined up for Thursday at 6am AEDT.
The Aussies will look for more success later in the week against Chaos and Team One, before facing off against Liquid and Mythic over the weekend and into next week.
100 Thieves will next take on Chaos on Friday, October 9, at 9:30am AEDT. You can catch the action live on the ESL Twitch channel.
