100T bang: "It feels like everyone just was able to get into the flow state"

On Friday, 100 Thieves secured their place in the upper final of the VCT Americas Stage 2 playoffs by defeating Leviatán (2-1). This result guarantees 100T a spot in the Finals in Brazil, but also put the North American team one series away from qualifying for VALORANT Champions Shanghai.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, Sean “bang” Bezerra discussed 100 Thieves’ strong run throughout Stage 2, the team’s ability to maintain its confidence through difficult periods in practice and the impact of the Esports World Cup on their development. The player also talked about adapting to the current meta, his own individual form and the upcoming upper-bracket final against NRG.

Sean “bang” Bezerra: “I'm feeling really good about how the team's been performing, not just in this match but in practice. It felt like we kind of picked up right where we left off in the EWC, and we never skipped a beat. We had some hard days, but I feel like we had a lot of hard days even before, when we were practicing leading up to EWC or earlier in the year. We did have a couple bumps in the road in practice leading up to Stage 2. It was a little different because for EWC, we rarely had a bump on the road. When we were practicing in Europe, we were just winning and winning and winning. It was kind of interesting to see how well our mental and our resilience were, being able to push through those rough scrim days and not let it affect our confidence as a team, then show up at match time and just be an incredible team. This is the thing I like the most about what we're doing right now.

bang: It doesn't really affect me too much. It's going to be exciting, 100%. I'm always happy and excited if I'm able to make an international event. The experience definitely helps, but it makes me feel less anxious because I feel like ever since I started playing, when I made my first international matches, in a way I can feel a little bit easier. I don't know, it just feels like you're in a flow state and nothing really matters, which is what I always look forward to in international events. It feels more scrappy winning an international than it is winning convincingly while winning matches in a group stage in a regular season. That's kind of how I feel.

bang: I think just us finding what roles suit us the best was kind of the biggest thing. I guess finding an identity with Phoenix, Neon, and kind of using that system on a lot of maps has honestly made a lot of these maps feel very similar. It kind of lets us be fully comfortable when we run similar comps on a lot of maps. The work that we've put in has been a lot. When the map doesn't fit, we don't force the comp. We put in a lot of work to make sure that's also comfortable. Just being able to have a set system on a lot of maps honestly makes every map feel really comfortable for us. Once we set that system leading into EWC qualifiers, we had already set the system sometime in Stage 1. It feels like everyone just was able to get into the flow state

bang: I don't think there's anything super specific. It's just a combination of a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, honestly. I do feel like we put in an insane amount of work when it comes to practice, a lot of VOD review and post-practice talks and things like this. We don't just show up for the four scrims and then go home. We put in a lot of work and talk a lot about theorizing what could be good, the mistakes we made and things like this. It really helps us become a better team for the next day. Day to day, we're improving and getting better at whatever the goal is. At the same time, I feel like a trap that every team falls into is getting worse at things that we had worked on in the past. I don't think we put too much effort into not getting worse at things in the past. I just think we're a team that naturally learns and we don't fall into the same mistakes and traps that we already learned from in the past. We learn from them and just keep on learning and adding to being a better team.

bang: It takes a little bit of luck to win every international. I don't think we're really super lucky. I think we're really super skilled and that we put in the work to get there. But every single team in the game will tell you that when they won an international, it doesn't come down to just skill. It comes down to a little bit of luck too. That's how you win a big tournament in this game. Things going your way, you're winning your fights on that day, things like this. It'll happen. Unfortunately, even the best teams sometimes are going to get lucky and they just might not win because of that. I do think that it helped us, but obviously I don't think it's the main factor as to why we won.

bang: We're adapting well. You're sort of seeing a little bit of a meta shift when it comes to other people experimenting with other Duelists. Some teams, like Leviatán for example, kind of moved away from Phoenix on some maps and they're putting more trust into Yoru and other agents. The biggest thing for us when we realized earlier in the year that this was going to be a heavy signing meta was when Asuna (Peter Mazuryk), started playing Phoenix. He's so naturally gifted for that agent. He's naturally gifted in general, but he really is incredible at making micro plays and doing these kinds of things on Phoenix, just being an incredible Phoenix player. It kind of helps him not only in that way. I feel like he just has a lot of confidence on that agent and it also helps him in every part of the game. When you have a lot of confidence in your game — a simple example is when I play Omen — I feel very secure because I know I have a lot of practice with that agent. That ends up making things easier for me and helps me assist others. He's just able to help us out in a lot of regards, not just fragging. Being able to frag out the way he is is also super helpful. He's been able to do that on many different agents that he's played.

bang: I'd say things were a little bit rocky for myself at EWC, but we still ended up winning, which is really exciting. I was noticing that I wasn't in the greatest form in that tournament, and it's kind of been a little bit rocky since. I'm just kind of focusing on feeling the best individually, the best I possibly can on a day-to-day basis. Being able to not worry so much about my individual performance is something that's helped me. I kind of put pressure on myself in the past to perform. I felt like if I didn't perform, things wouldn't go well. But I realized that it's a team game. That's not the case. I can have a horrible performance and this team is so good that it does not matter. I've seen it in scrims, I've seen it in matches. If I have a good day, that's great. It will help. If I don't have a good day, I think we'll still win. That's how comfortable I feel in this team. It doesn't really matter.

bang: I don't think there's anything too specific to do. We obviously know the kind of way they play and we've played them a lot this year. We've lost to them a lot. Obviously, we got the most important win at EWC. I think they're still trying to figure themselves out with the changing roles and agents they've been doing for a while now. It feels like they're still going through experimental phases. For us, it's honestly not going to be too crazy. It's going to be us playing our game when we play against them, but also realizing that they're a team that can adapt pretty well. They're also a team that watches VODs a lot. They'll probably know how we'll play and we know how they play. It's going to be a game of adaptation. They're known for doing anti-stratting here and there, so it's just going to be a game of adaptation.”