LCS: Breaking Down the Meteos Situation

100 Thieves jungler Meteos was benched by the team last night and he was not happy.

On Sunday night, 100 Thieves jungler Williams “Meteos” Hartman announced on Twitter that he had been benched after three weeks of LCS. Coincidentally, this exact same cycle occurred with his last stint on 100 Thieves, something the jungler made fun of in his original tweet. Let’s break down everything about this situation.

When looking at the split 100 Thieves has had so far, a change is certainly warranted. Sitting near the bottom of the standings at 1-5, the Thieves haven’t looked competitive against any of the league’s top teams. Meteos has been one of their worst performers, consistently ranking in the bottom quarter of LCS junglers in major statistical categories.

Through three weeks, among junglers, he’s 9th in KDA (1.5), tied for 9th in Kills per game (1), Last in deaths per game (4), 9th in GPM (302), 7th in DMG% (12.5%), 10th in VSPM (1.29), and last in WPM (0.25). It makes sense for some of his statistics to look poor, as the overall team hasn’t succeeded so far in the summer split. However, the gameplay also suggests that Meteos hasn’t been playing up to standards.

Consistently in games, he’s been playing champions that are more objective focused, and have to run into the middle of teamfights, such as Olaf, Volibear, and Trundle. However, he’s often been caught out, trying to do too much with little resources. For instance, against TSM, he decided to chase a Kalista through the jungle with her team nearby as Olaf. This ended up wasting his own Guardian Angel, a valuable item that would’ve helped in the next team fight.

In the 100 Thieves roster overall, there seems to be a lack of coordination and leadership, which likely leads to strange misplays such as the one described above.

After the original tweet was posted by Meteos, he later went on to criticize his own coaching staff, in a now-deleted message. He tweeted:

"“Pretty weird to hear the players on my team didn’t know about or agree with the decision. All credit goes to @Zikzlol @JungleJuiceLoL and @PapaSmithy ! Clearly the people not on the team know what’s best for it.”"

Obviously frustrated, this quickly removed tweet suggests that only the coaching staff was aware of the impending benching of the jungler, catching the players off guard. By calling out his whole coaching staff, Meteos managed to ostracize himself even more from the organization, as he has been criticized on social media for the unprofessional remarks.

Admittedly, he most definitely should not have taken to social media in this manner, hurting his overall status with the team. This type of statement only hurts his chances of getting back on the LCS stage anytime soon. However, if none of his teammates at 100 Thieves knew about the benching, or were consulted in any way, is that the correct way to run a League of Legends organization?

When looking at traditional sports, the players have little to no impact on the starting roster in any given game. In League, with only five players on each team, and where synergy is perhaps the most important factor in success, it may be smart to rely on players’ input for roster changes.

If a player feels like they have more synergy with one player or another, they should be able to voice their opinion as a part of the organization.

So yes, the Meteos benching is deserved, and yes, his now-deleted tweets were quite childish and unprofessional. But it can also be true that 100 Thieves did not handle their roster changes in a productive manner.