Nadeshot confirms 100 Thieves could return to CS: “I want to be in Counter-Strike again”

100 Thieves founder and CEO Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag has admitted that he would like to see his organization compete in Counter-Strike again.

100 Thieves walked away from CS:GO in October 2020 during a period of great turmoil in the scene amid the global health crisis, which saw many esports tournaments move to an online-only format.

Nadeshot justified the decision with the “ambiguity, vagueness and uncertainty” in the CS:GO scene, adding that the majority of the big online tournaments would be taking place in Europe, far away from 100 Thieves’ base in Los Angeles.

The landscape has changed dramatically since then, with offline events becoming the norm again. At the same time, there seems to be a renewed surge of interest from esports organizations in the scene amid the upcoming release of Counter-Strike 2.

Questioned about the possibility of 100 Thieves returning to Counter-Strike on the latest episode of ‘Nadeshot Knows’, the organization’s founder said: “There’s a world where it happens. It has got to be the right time and the right opportunity.

“I’m not trying to string anybody along. I want to be in Counter-Strike one day again.”

(Topic starts at 45:10 in the video)

This is not the first time that Nadeshot has kept the door open for a return to Counter-Strike. In August 2022, he publicly praised the game, as well as its history and community. “If I had it my way, we would have a CS:GO team today,” he said.

Nadeshot talks 100 Thieves’ potential return to Counter-Strike

Nadeshot added that organizations have to be cost-conscious during this period of economic uncertainty, citing the painful experience of the two rounds of layoffs that 100 Thieves recently had to go through.

Investing in esports, he added, is “a long-term play”, and that means knowing when to take a more calculated approach to the business — even if that comes with the risk of not being as competitive as other organizations.

“We can’t go all-in every single year like we have been,” he said. “We definitely have some tough decisions to make around how much to spend, how realistic, if we were to even reach the top of the totem pole of spending in whatever game we play in, are there rosters that are already set in stone that we can compete with, even with that spending?”

In April 2023, Nadeshot said that the economics around CS:GO made it hard to justify returning to the scene. He also described Counter-Strike as “logistically the hardest game” to be in because of the amount of travel that it involves.

100 Thieves entered the CS:GO scene in December 2017 with a Brazilian roster that included the core of the Immortals squad that had reached the grand final at PGL Major Krakow earlier that year.

The team ended up not playing a single match for 100 Thieves. The players were released just two months later after missing ELEAGUE Major Boston due to immigration issues.

100 Thieves re-entered the space in October 2019 with the signing of Renegades’ Australian lineup, which had reached the semi-finals of StarLadder Major Berlin. The organization also secured spots in CS:GO’s partner leagues, ESL Pro League and BLAST Premier.

While with 100 Thieves, the team notably reached its first-ever tier-one LAN final at IEM Beijing and broke into the top 5 in the world rankings. However, the team lost some of its luster after tournaments moved to an online-only format and became regional competitions.

While 100 Thieves remain on the fence about entering Counter-Strike at this point, other North American organizations seem to be dead-set on entering the space. M80 have vowed to build a “world-class” CS2 roster, while TSM are reportedly in the early stage of building a team and are looking at players like Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen, Florian ‘syrsoN’ Rische and Audric ‘JACKZ’ Jug.