The League of Legends LCS has been the source of a constant bit of drama for the last two splits – which, of course, is far from a deviation of the norm for the North American league. At this point, it’s far from uncommon to see players taking to social media to discuss the league.
Oftentimes this takes the form of players discussing mistakes they may or may not have made, as well as celebrating a victory or mourning a loss. However, it’s also become common to see players bemoaning their place on the team.
Recently, 100 Thieves made the choice to bench their jungler, Meteos, of whom was quite outspoken about not being too happy about such a thing. In a now-deleted tweet, Meteos decided to lob some shade towards the management team.
“This is gonna sound like a troll post but just got word that I’m being benched after Week 3 Summer again,” Meteos said, discussing the move. “Not sure why I expected anything different.”
This certainly isn’t the first time that Meteos has been benched, but he generally doesn’t end up throwing shade towards the managers in the process. Though the tweet was eventually deleted and replaced with another statement, referring to the move as a possible blessing, the damage was done.
A message from @PapaSmithy regarding our recent League of Legends roster changes: pic.twitter.com/1ELlUA0TBj
— 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) June 29, 2020
Rumors and gossip swiftly began to swarm around 100 Thieves as a result, prompting general manager Chris “PapaSmithy” Smith to make an announcement on the official Twitter today. In it, PapaSmithy discusses the benching of Meteos, as well as Stunt, the support for the team.
“We had a lot of trust that rolling back our five-man roster would give us our greatest chance of reaching our greatest goal, which for 100 Thieves League of Legends, is Worlds,” Smith stated. “Reflecting on the first three weeks, where we find ourselves one-and-five, we no longer feel like our current trajectory meets our stated goal and the level we require to make Worlds.”
Smith refers to this decision as the “logical conclusion” as they attempt to rebuild, regroup, and chase down a top three finish. In an extremely transparent discussion, Smith goes on to lay out the options for the two players.
In essence, Smith highlights the possibility of a six-man roster wherein the players could be able to rotate back in, as well as the opportunity to step into the Academy teams. Smith even goes far enough as to hint that all opportunities both within and outside of the team are on the table.
With this benching, we could potentially be seeing what will eventually lead to Meteos and Stunt deciding to find another team. Meteos made his displeasure extremely clear on Twitter and continued to do so after the initial tweet, though all tweets have been deleted.
