100 Thieves vs Team SoloMid

What a fantastic way to start this week's Friday Night League: Team SoloMid vs. 100 Thieves. This isn't just a clash between two premier organizations, but also a fight between two equally talented teams. There's a ton to like about both rosters, with multiple seasoned veterans and a fair bit of up-and-coming talent. They can play a wide variety of styles and are deceptively dangerous when they start off on the right foot.

They are, however, impossible to read at this point in time. TSM is generally considered as the second or third best team in North America but they haven't been playing particularly well over the last couple of weeks. It's a lot of good and a lot of bad whenever the boys in black and white are involved and just when you think they've started to pop off they end up regressing without any apparent reason. Their two losses against Cloud9 and Immortals last week certainly hurt their stock, and right now no one's quite sure how good they really are. The potential is obviously there, but until they start stringing wins and playing as well as fans expect, they cannot be counted upon.

100 Thieves, on the other hand, has quickly risen to prominence ever since they swapped Meteos and Stunt in favor for Contractz and Poome. On paper, this team doesn't look that much better, but their play is miles ahead of what was expected. They're currently riding a three-game win streak with wins over Team Dignitas, FlyQuest, and Cloud9, and the fashion in which they've won has left no one indifferent. They didn't just compete with Cloud9 but have instead outclassed them across the board. C9 lost fair and square -- they were the worse team on the day and couldn't do much against a very game 100 Thieves.

But then again, Dignitas lost that game before their resurgence, FlyQuest has imploded in general, and Cloud9 had an uncharacteristically bad draft -- an important factor that hindered their chances of finding success right from the very get-go. But a win is a win, and 100 Thieves looked good in the process, so it's impossible to fault them. They're riding quite a big momentum wave and have all the hype in the world after taking the defending champions down, but no one's quite sure whether this was just a one-off kind of thing, or an indication of their current strength and potential.

This is the kind of game that's the definition of hindsight 20/20. If you bet on the favorite, and they end up losing, you'll immediately remember the fashion in which 100 Thieves outclassed Cloud9 and go "well of course they were going to upset". If you bet on the underdog, you'll just go "well of course they lost, their win over C9 was a fluke." Betting on this game is so incredibly thankless. We'll side with 100 Thieves on this one, but this is far from a safe bet. Both teams stand a chance of getting the win, but the recent level of play from 100 Thieves is impossible to ignore.