For the second time in the first three weeks of VCT Americas, 100 Thieves have let another winnable VALORANT match slip through their fingers—and the road to a potential playoff spot is only going to get harder.

In the opening match against Cloud9 in week three, 100T struggled to keep up with the highly coordinated teamplay from C9, losing decisively on Lotus and then falling in overtime on their own pick of Ascent. The map picks were questionable for 100T, who were 0-2 on Lotus and 0-3 on Ascent prior to today.

While C9 are certainly a team that many underestimated heading into this season, this second loss of the season from 100T is definitely more concerning than the narrow defeat against Sentinels in week one. 100T’s playcalling looked a page behind C9’s as their opponents seemed to have the perfect read on them round after round. Since their win at the Red Bull Home Ground event, 100T as a whole have looked shakier and shakier with each event.

It has to be mentioned as well that the start of this season has been a disappointing one for 100T’s newest acquisition in Cryocells. One of the biggest free agent pickups of this past offseason has really struggled since Chamber is no longer viable, and outside of a single map against Evil Geniuses, he has had no standout performances during VCT Americas.

It’s not going to get easier for 100T going forward, though. They get to play the currently winless KRÜ Esports in the first match of the upcoming super week but then go through an absolutely wicked gauntlet of tough teams: Leviatán, NRG, LOUD, and FURIA before finally ending the season against MIBR.

If things don’t go their way during this stretch, one of the most highly regarded NA rosters prior to the start of the season could miss out on the playoffs altogether.