100 Thieves have confirmed the return of Tony “Zikz” Gray as the head coach of the organization’s VALORANT roster. The confirmation came on Monday, laying the truth on the reports that initially claimed that they would be bringing in a reigning world champion to coach its VALORANT roster.
Zikz has the experience, having spent half a decade coaching League of Legends in the LCS before moving over to VALORANT. 100T now has a manager whose coaching stock is at an all-time high after helping Evil Geniuses to a world championship as the team’s assistant coach.
His addition and contribution to EG were praised by both head coach Christine “potter” Chi and several members of the EG team. Meanwhile, Zikz will reunite with the organization whose LCS roster he led for all of 2020 and the 2021 Spring Split. That was his last League coaching stint before he switched to VALORANT.
In the official announcement, Zikz revealed that the 100T 2024 roster has the potential to contend for Champions. Meanwhile, his announcement as head coach means that the roster’s previous head coach for the 2023 VCT Americas season, Michael “Mikes” Hockom, will stay on but only in the assistant coach role.
He had previously served in that role when Sean Gares served as the head coach. Sean Gares is now a full-time content creator.
The expected objectives of Zikz and Mikes will be to better the accomplishment of 100T last year when the team missed the playoffs in VCT Americas and experienced an early elimination in the LCQ.
Meanwhile, as the organization seems to put together its roaster, they are looking to bring in another Evil Genius member, Kelden “Boostio” Pupello, although it was turned down by EG. 100T will compete at Red Bull Home Ground 4 at the start of November, which will still be many months before the start of VCT 2024.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
