100 Thieves Is at the Top of Esports and Won't Look Back

Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag was a professional gamer for eight years, competing at tournaments for millions of dollars, recording YouTube video content and streaming before he ever started the Esports team known as 100 Thieves. And even before it became an actual gaming team, Nadeshot started an apparel company under the 100 Thieves umbrella first, wanting to give his audience and gamers everywhere something they could play and live in. Working with talented designers from Nike and Kith, the apparel combined with Nadeshot’s successful streaming career, gave the operation the opportunity to scale bigger, receiving a seeding influx from a VC friend from Detroit and one of the city’s own top investors, Dan Gilbert. In 2018, 100 Thieves used this funding to pick up their first esports team, as part of their acceptance to the League Championship Series, the largest esports league in North America for the game League of Legends.

Look no further than its one-of-a-kind HQ, dubbed the 100 Thieves Cash App Compound, located in the heart of Los Angeles, as proof of the team’s rapid growth over the last few years. At about 15,000-square-feet, the 100 Thieves compound marks one of more innovative and spacious Esports team facilities in the US today. Showing us around the office, Nadeshot goes through different spaces for esports training, video game live stream broadcasting, content production, apparel design studio, and a retail space for the brand’s upcoming apparel drops. There’s even an impressive trophy collection, with four major championship trophies. The team started and made their name with the multiplayer online battle game, League of Legends, but have also earned trophies for games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Riot Games’ tactical shooter VALORANT Nadeshot of course wants to continue winning but is proud of what they’ve accomplished so far, “A lot of the teams we’ve been competing against have been in this [the LCS] for a decade and we’ve only been here for three years so far.”

Team members Can Çelik, aka “Closer” and Jae-Hyun Choi, aka “Huhi”, say joining 100 Thieves has been the best decision they’ve ever made, explaining how the team provides the infrastructure to be the best professional gamer one can be. It’s the holistic approach to gaming that truly separates 100 Thieves from other esports teams, with its strong focuses on competitive gaming in League of Legends and other titles, apparel and lifestyle clothing, and creating highly-engaging entertainment gaming content on YouTube.. And it doesn’t hurt that one of the biggest artist in the world, in Drake, is all in on your success, as an early investor in the esports team, primed by a front-and-center shot of Nadeshot and Drake on the wall of the 100 Thieves compound.

“It’s been a fun ride and a great journey because I have never had any background in apparel or design or anything so now I get to venture off into a new world and learn a bunch of things, meet a bunch of new people and just work on something that I love,” says Nadeshot. “The potential to say to the world we are profitable and innovating is really exciting.”

For our latest episode of HYPEBEAST Diaries, we caught up with founder, Nadeshot, and more of the 100 Thieves team to get a glimpse of their gaming compound and discuss the esports team, its lifestyle and apparel arm, League of Legends and the League Championship Series. Also tune into the LCS Mid-Season Showdown this weekend right here.