“Cryo is a great addition to the team.” - Interview with 100 Thieves Bang

The young star of 100 Thieves, Sean "bang" Bezerra sat with us to talk about their new transfer Cryocells and his opinions on the new league changes.

THESPIKE.GG: You had great performances last year as 100 Thieves and made it to the VALORANT Champions 2022 stage. What do you think made it possible for you to win the LCQs and qualify for the biggest event of the year?

Bang: It was just a team effort, we played so well and we were doing really well in scrims. I think that all of us like just elevated our game and played out of our minds, and a lot of us stepping up was the reason that we won.Just stepping up individually and is what won us the LCQ.

THESPIKE.GG: Cryocells is the only player that joined the team and he will be replacing Will. How do you think this change will affect 100 Thieves’ performance this year and what has changed internally?

Bang: I think you’ll see more of an operator presence in our team because Matt’s more of an awper than Will was. And yeah, I think that's going to be the biggest change. I think that Matt is a more proven player and he played so well for so long. So I think it's a great addition. Cryo is a great addition to the team. I think you only going to see better performances out of us.

THESPIKE.GG: You will come up against FUT Esports, Team Heretics, and Team Liquid in the group stage and you guys are the only NA team in Group B. One of the other Americas 2023 teams could get eliminated in the group stage. Do you see think not being able to compete against an Americas 2023 League team in the group stage is to your advantage or would you have wanted to face Cloud9 or KRÜ Esports in Group B?

Bang: I think that I'd rather not face them. It is kind of like an advantage for us not playing them. So I think that, yeah, I'd rather save them for later on.

THESPIKE.GG: You are only 18 years old and you have already played for some of the biggest esports organizations in NA. Where do you see yourself in the future and for how long do you think you will be playing professionally?

Bang: Hopefully I play professionally for decades to come. I mean, I hope I can play this for as long as I possibly can. I hope I'm on 100 Theives for as long as possible because I love this org. It's probably the best org in America. I mean, as long as I love VALORANT as I do right now. So as long as I keep this passion, I think that'll be good to stay for a while. Hopefully as long as I stay as good as I am.

THESPIKE.GG: With the new system, you will compete against other regions in the league. Did this situation lead to differences in your understanding of the game? What did you do as a team to understand the meta there and prepare better?

Bang: I think that ever since international play started happening, you were able to see a lot more of copycat style. In general, people started running more similar comps at the international level. Before that, people were a lot more diverse because, you know, regions haven't met each other yet. I don't think it's gonna be that much different. The only team that I think really has changed a lot more, and has made crazy differences in playstyles is Paper Rex. They run double duals or something that now many teams do. Other than that, I think everyone is kind of doing the same thing.

THESPIKE.GG: What do you think about the new league system? Could you compare it to the recent one and evaluate the changes stating the pros and cons?

Bang: Well, I think every single pro-player franchise league is gonna be in LA. So I think the pros are that everyone is able to stream each other. I think it's only gonna make everyone as a collective better. It's good that we're able to go to these other different countries like that. Obviously, we were able to do that before, but we weren't able to do as much during COVID.

THESPIKE.GG: Just following on from the back of that, a lot of teams who missed out on the Franchise spot may step away from VALORANT for a while and if they come back or not we need to wait and see, do you think it's going to have a big impact in North America and the Tier 2 scene?

Bang: Yeah, I think that a lot of the orgs leaving was sad because you know a lot of them deserved franchise spots and they didn't get it. But I think that it's gonna affect Tier 2 because Ascension players aren’t going to be able to play Franchise teams and the only way they're able to play is if the players upgrade to franchise teams. It sucks that you're not going to scrim a lot of teams you used to be able to. So yeah, it's unfortunate. I think Tier 2 is going to be a lot more set in stone and the franchise is going to be a lot more set in stone. And it's going to be harder for players too as well because you know, they're just different leagues and you're not able to see them play each other.

THESPIKE.GG: Do you think that will affect the standards and the different skill sets within the different tiers of VCT 2023?

Bang: People will have an excuse. If you're a franchise player, if you're doing bad then maybe you could be a really good Ascension player or if you're doing good as an Ascension player then maybe "he's just an Ascension player" and he's not going to be able to do it in franchising. It's just complete BS, I think that's kind of like stumbling to say.