LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming100 Thieves’ CS2 Return Proves Org is Targeting Long-Term Success Over Short-Term Rewards
After weeks of speculation, North American organization 100 Thieves have announced their Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) roster. The new team marks their first appearance in the game, having left the Counter-Strike scene in 2021 following the sale of their Australian lineup.
Opting against signing a pre-existing core that held VRS points, as originally reported, the Graham “messioso” Pitt and Sean “seangares” Gares-managed project has instead put its faith in youth. This decision signals the organization’s intent to stick around in the game for a while and its willingness to build from the ground up.
It’s obviously a gamble, especially considering the new chapters that even the experienced figures will be embarking on, but it shows that 100 Thieves are focused on the long-term success of this team, not short-term rewards as other organizations have done.
Balancing Youth and Experience
The biggest stars of the team, although maybe not yet in name, will be Alex “poii” Sundgren and William “sirah” Kjaersgaard. A Scandinavian duo signed from Alliance and ECSTATIC, respectively, they arrive at the team as two of the greatest prospects in one of Counter-Strike’s greatest regions.
Whilst neither arrive with much experience at the level they will soon be tasked with playing at, they have both already shown they are worthy of the opportunity. Two aggressive players – with poii being the more aggressive of the two – they’re exactly the type of rifle stars that top teams now look to build around.
The third and final young star is Andrei “Ag1l” Gil, a Portuguese anchor who gained solid experience with SAW in 2025. A specialist on both Train and Nuke, btrams posted a graphic on Twitter to show that whilst Ag1l might not be an exciting, big name signing, he’s certainly a smart one from the brains behind 100 Thieves.
As the old saying goes, though, you can’t win anything with kids – but 100 Thieves are more than aware of this. To balance out their young core, they’ve recruited three of the most experienced figures in CS: Havard “rain” Nygaard as IGL, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander as coach, and Nicolai “device” Reedtz as the AWPer.
Admittedly, all three of these signings also file under the category of “gamble.” Neither rain or device had strong stats in 2025, and for rain, it’s his first foray into IGLing. The same can be said for gla1ve, too, who only announced his retirement to become the coach of this new team back in November.
But this is also where the team gets exciting – the huge question marks that linger over them. Which pieces will work? Which pieces won’t? Will device recapture his old form now that he’s reunited with gla1ve? Will rain successfully transition to a leadership role? Until we watch them play, it’s truly anyone’s guess.
In that sense, the gambles are clear. However, these are also smart, tactical gambles. It’s young stars with massive potential to grow, and experienced figures who can help them get there. They might not all make it, but that’s okay, the fact they have come from lesser organizations means that there probably wasn’t a ridiculous financial outlay in order to bring them in and therefore no pressure to force making the team work if it doesn’t.
Expectations for the Future
That does mean, of course, that it’s important to temper your expectations for this roster. Initial reports that they would sign the GamerLegion core indicated that established stars like Fredrik “REZ” Sterner and Oldrich “PR” Novy would be the ones bringing the firepower for this roster.
That hasn’t happened, so the expectation should now be that it will take a while for some of the firepower that is there to heat up.
The lack of the core means that 100 Thieves will now have to build from the ground up as NIP did in 2025, but thanks to the greater number of tournaments now and the VRS understanding of messioso, that should be no issue for them.
It can even be done incredibly quickly now, as VRS wizard Jesper Larsen pointed out on Twitter a while ago:
So, let’s say that 100 Thieves do perform as the tweet says they would need to, what then? What are the expectations for this team? Well, not much. At least not initially, anyway.
The fact is, in their current form, this isn’t a team designed to go on deep runs. Stack it against the likes of Vitality, Spirit, MOUZ, Falcons, FURIA, and NAVI, and you soon begin to see just how hard it would be for them to ever qualify for the six-team playoffs that appear in most events. And that’s without mentioning the plethora of other teams in their way, too.
But that isn’t the main objective of this team, or at least it isn’t in the present tense. Instead, the goal of this team will be to gain experience for its young stars and for rain to learn the ropes as an IGL.
Then, over time, as it becomes clear what is clicking and what isn’t, the team will be able to change players and continue to grow until they are worthy of being mentioned alongside those teams.
It’s a long road, that’s undeniable, but it’s one that 100 Thieves are taking all the right steps to properly traverse.
