100T Goldenglue: “I think he’s handled it very well, and [Sniper’s] had a very good mindset about learning from Dhokla. “

Q: I think everyone’s been wondering — going into this week, did you anticipate Dhokla would start all the games? What was the thought process going in? 

Goldenglue: Yeah, we announced that we added Dhokla to the six-man roster. I think this match was kind of a non-deciding factor for our playoffs run.

We’re gonna basically be [in the] bottom bracket no matter what, so it’s important for us to get stage time with Dhokla. Going into next week, it’s more of a decision on who we’re gonna play. But I think for this week, it was basically [that] we need to get stage time with Dhokla. See how he meshes with the team on stage when pressure’s higher. That was kind of the plan.

Q: How long have you considered adding Dhokla as a sixth man behind Sniper? Was it since he was hired as a positional coach?

Goldenglue: It was not, exactly. When we hired him, we were not planning to do this. I think […] when the meta kind of crystallized and the top picks were, at the time, Rumble and Sion, I think we were starting to think about it towards the end of Week 1 and into Week 2.

A lot of it is just because I think the champions in the meta right now are not that good for Sniper. So that’s basically when we considered it. 

Q: Contractz and Palafox thought it was a really confusing set of moves that put a lot of pressure and blame on Sniper. They also said Dhokla was hired a month ago as a positional coach, but was already subbing in for scrims. I think a lot of people think that Sniper’s getting scapegoated. What do you think about that sentiment? 

Goldenglue: I definitely don’t think Sniper is all of our problems or the sole reason we’ve been losing or anything like that. I think it’s more so just looking at our situation and just saying, “Well, what can we do?” 

Obviously, we have a lot of problems as a team. Sniper has his own problems, Dhokla has his own problems, we have drafting issues — everyone has their own issues. […]

Also, they said he was subbing initially? He was not subbing in scrims initially, when we signed him as a positional coach. That did not happen before the season started, not even a single game. So, yeah, I think there might be some inaccurate perceptions about that. […]

It’s more so about the external observations. I mean, I think we still have a lot of problems as a team, but I do think Sniper also can get more out of watching another top laner play with the team, even […] from a learning perspective.

I’ve been a part of a six-man [roster], so I think it does add pressure to Sniper, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. […] I just have a traditional sports background where it’s not a big deal to be competing for your spot. In fact, I kind of wish everyone was competing for their spot all the time. A lot of people see this as a negative, like a consequence or as a punishment, but I think that’s just how sports should be.

Q: I think fans are concerned that Sniper is cracking and might give up, like with Srtty. What’s it like behind the scenes, and how are you making sure he gets through that rut?

Goldenglue: It’s kind of funny. He used to actually say in past splits sometimes [that] he kinda wished he had somebody to compete with; to add more fire to the field. I think it was kind of funny. I was surprised he even said that. 

I think the reality is that — how do I say this? — I think competing professionally is going to be very stressful and very intensive, and we try to give him all the advice. 

We have a performance psychologist that he can speak to on tap, on dial. If he wants to, he has that resource available. 

I think I also told him that if he ever felt too stressed or he felt like this was too much, he could just let me know. Not that he would necessarily quit, but whatever he needed, I was there to help and try to provide and be a resource for him. And I think […] the way I told him too is that this is a learning opportunity for [him].

I think […] just generically, a lot of players have really big egos, right? It’s kinda normal. When you watch somebody else play in your position, you almost have a little bit of ego death because you realize somebody else can take your job or can take a position or […] do something better than you.

I think if you can’t handle that reality check, you’re doing the wrong thing. [That might] sound kind of harsh, but I think Sniper’s been handling it pretty well. He’s been coming into the office every day watching Dhokla learning, and he has still been getting some scrim time.

And I think that he’s worked on his champion pool and realized that he needed it to expand it even though we’ve been trying to expand it for a long time. So, I mean, I think he’s handled it very well, and he’s had a very good mindset about learning from Dhokla. 

Because I think, typically, they have opposite play styles too. I think if I were to characterize them, I would say Dhokla tends to play overaggressive and Sniper tends to play overly passive. If you watch our stage games, I think that would be pretty accurate. Like, we’re losing priority because we’re not contesting what we won.

I think that if you could look closely — it’s hard to watch on the broadcast because you’re not looking at the lane phase. I think it just has to do with confidence on champions and knowing when [to play] Sion, K’Sante or Renekton or […] the meta last year. People were giving him his champions that he was really good at. He had a lot more confidence, and he knows how to 1v1 very well. 

[And] another big point of this whole thing was that the meta is just not as good for Sniper as it was last year. 

Q: Some have accused 100 Thieves of being the worst team in the league this year. With the six-man roster, what are you targeting to get through the best of five stage? Where would you rank yourself among the other seven teams?

Goldenglue: I mean, we’ve lost all of our matches. We had tough matches our first two, but I think that’s [because we’ve only faced the top half].

I think this week of scrims was our best week of scrims so far. I think we are growing a lot as a team, and I think we’re getting better at a lot of the objective situations. I don’t think we can fairly put ourselves in at any point in the top four, because of how we’ve been playing and our results. 

But I think we definitely still could be the best team in the lower bracket. I think we still could be fifth or sixth in strength. But I do think that if we go over today’s games, a lot of the situations in Game 2 especially were really winnable. I think Game 1, we played pretty clean and controlled. Like, it was pretty solid. So I think that we have grown a lot as a team, and this is basically our first week getting to scrim with Dhokla.

And as we will be using both, I think the team is definitely going to be more cohesive. But, yeah, it’s for sure an uphill battle because we’re trying to do something hard. We’re trying to do a six-man. We’re trying to do a high execution strategy. But I think it was kind of from the point I was like, what do we have to lose?

We’re not good right now anyway, so we might as well go for the thing that could have the highest results even if it also could have a lower floor, I would say. 

Q: Is the time limit weighing on you?

Goldenglue: I mean, the format’s bad. […] Sniper kinda being the youngest — it’s not like any of our players are really that new, [and] the game isn’t that confusing right now either. It’s actually very simple in the terms of how you basically just teamfight every objective. So I don’t think it’s like we have a giant hurdle, and the macro of the game is really complicated right now. I think we just need to gel more as a team and just be more decisive in a lot of these objective situations.

So I think even Game 3, there were multiple windows and angles for us to get back into the game, and we just kinda missed them. I mean, that little confidence check can completely change a team, right? Like, if you’re just a little bit more confident, you take the slightly more correct place.

Transcription assistance from Sage, @eonmoons