100 Thieves have secured a place in the top four of the
Esports World Cup. Competing in their first international event of the season, the North American side defeated
Made In Brazil (MIBR) in a three-map series and will now face
Nongshim RedForce on Saturday for a spot in the tournament's Grand Final.
Since narrowly missing out on a top-three finish in VCT Americas Stage 1, 100 Thieves have yet to suffer another defeat. The team went undefeated throughout the EWC Qualifier before sweeping through the group stage. Continuing his own impressive run of form, Timothée "Timotino" Lavigne Dupont spoke with Sheep Esports following his team's qualification for the semifinals.
What is your first impression after the game?
Timothée "Timotino" Lavigne Dupont: “To be honest, after the first map, I kind of expected for this whole series to be a quick 2-0. We were really confident going into Breeze, it's one of our best maps. We were really confident, and they fought us really hard and they stole our comp, so it does make sense. But I expected this to be pretty easy for us and they fought way more than I expected. So props to them.
You had a strong start with an impressive first map on Fracture before they came back. What kind of issue did you meet during the game?
Timotino: During the game on Breeze, it was mostly our defense side. When we switched to attack, we were still very confident because it's our best side. The comp that we play on this map is mostly attack sided. So I wasn't really surprised that we were coming back, it was very expected for me. It was just some of the micro sometimes was kind of off for us. For example, whenever Aspas (Erick Santos) who is obviously a great AWPer started to use it, the pressure started to build up a little bit. So our problem was mostly about how to play around the Operator. That was like the biggest issue for us on Breeze. But apart from that, I think they played a great game.
Are you satisfied with your team’s run in the competition so far?
Timotino: Oh yeah, for sure. We're really in good form right now. Every single one of us, especially Asuna (Peter Mazuryk) who has been playing absolutely insane. All of us individually are doing really well right now, so I'm very happy with that.
What are your first impressions of your first international experience? What are you learning, and how is it going for you?
Timotino: The biggest thing I'm learning is how to play around a crowd. I'm watching these players like Ethan (Ethan Arnold) look at other people's mouths when they play to get an advantage and maybe use the crowd's noise to play. It's something I'm not used to yet. So it's something I have to learn and it's a really great experience so far.
Among the players still in the competition we spoke to, some told me that BBL Esports was the team they were fearing the most. However, your team is the only one who won against them so far, so what’s your feeling about them?
Timotino: I think BBL is playing pretty insane right now. Especially Lar0k (Yusuf Kanber) He's in insane form, and he's playing like unreal. But to be honest, it's one of the playstyles that I'm really used to. I used to play against ENVY a lot in Tier 2 and they have the exact same play style where they just run at you and they don't care about anything. So I don't find them super scary, especially because we had a really poor showing against them and we still won. So I'm not really scared. I think NRG is probably going to win against them, but I could see a world where BBL finds a way to win.
Is there any players left in the competition that you really would like to play against?
Timotino: I want to play against Dambi (Lee Hyuk-kyu). He's an insane Neon. I'm also a Neon player, and I think he's one of the best in the world, so I'm excited to face him.
Is there any player in the world, from what you've seen here or in Masters London, that is underrated for you? Or maybe someone that impresses you but you feel like is not praised enough?
Timotino: The first person that came to my mind is Neon (Bruno Rodríguez). But obviously I think he's praised enough. He's like the best rookie in the world. As for someone that's not praised enough, I would say, from the same team, blowz (Guilherme Oliveira). I think he's doing an insane job on Leviatán. He's pretty underrated; obviously he won the Masters, but he's still one of these players that you wouldn't look at as one of the best players in the world, but he's still doing an insane job. So I think he's pretty underrated.
