100 Thieves break eUnited hearts to win CWL London
Call of Duty tournament victory for the organization.
Fresh off their victory over OpTic Gaming, 100 Thieves found themselves in their first-ever Grand Finals berth and with a one-series advantage after progressing from the Winners Bracket.
eUnited entered the Grand Finals without dropping a map in their three Losers Bracket series of the day, taking down Team Heretics, Team Envy, and OpTic Gaming with back-to-back-to-back 3-0 victories. Despite that growing momentum, they ran into an equally hot 100 Thieves squad who provided an extremely tough test.
100 Thieves didn’t need Kenny to carry them through but they still picked up victory regardless.
100 Thieves struck first by ending eUnited’s undefeated run on Championship Sunday with a 250-176 Hardpoint victory on Hacienda behind stellar play from Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt and Austin ‘SlasheR’ Liddicoat who combined for 68 kills.
However, eUnited answered the opening blow with a suffocating Search and Destroy win of their own on Gridlock – tying the series at 1-1 by downing 100 Thieves with a 6-1 scoreline. Their returning momentum and victory was personified by Chris ‘Simp’ Lehr’s three-piece sniper killstreak as they, at the very least, avoided being swept.
The action then returned to Gridlock for the first Control of the series, with 100 Thieves heavily favored in respawn play. The all-star North American squad showed why they were heavy favorites to pick up the swing game of the series – sweeping the map with a perfect 3-0 victory and not even allowing eUnited to use their specialist abilities.
However, the fairytale run wasn’t to be for eUnited as 100 Thieves completed their victory with an incredibly intense Hardpoint meeting on Gridlock – winning by a scoreline of 250-238 as Sam ‘Octane‘ Larew was crowned MVP.
Despite it being the first tournament win ever for 100 Thieves, the victory also means that, for the third open event on the run, no team has been able to hold serve and pick up back-to-back tournament successes.
While the electric Copper Box Arena crowd probably won’t make the trip to Anaheim for the next Major open tournament of the season, every team will have to switch their focus to getting ready for the West Coast trip.
100 Thieves will, of course, be the team to beat on their home turf but will have a huge target on their back as teams look to secure a trophy of their own before the season is out.