100 Thieves IGL Gizmy Sets EWC Qualification as Minimum Bar
One month into his tenure with 100 Thieves, British IGL Jack 'Gizmy' von Spreckelsen says qualifying for the Esports World Cup is the only result he will be satisfied with, while setting a Major appearance as the team's longer-term benchmark.
A Clear Standard From Day One
Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckelsen does not leave much room for interpretation. Speaking to HLTV after advancing through the group stage of the Esports World Cup 2026 Open Qualifier on August 8, the British IGL was direct about where the bar sits for 100 Thieves right now. “I’ll only be happy with qualifying for EWC,” he said.
That is a firm line from someone who has been with the organization for just one month. 100 Thieves brought Gizmy on board after he was the only holdover from the Monte roster that played the IEM Cologne Major. He stepped into the IGL role previously held by Håvard “rain” Nygaard, and the early signs, at least in terms of chemistry and communication, sound genuinely promising.
Mixed Results, Clear Explanations
The online record since Gizmy joined has been, in his own words, a mixed bag. The team nearly knocked off Spirit in the online portion of BLAST Bounty, and they beat Falcons. But they also dropped two matches in the StarSeries qualifier, losing to NIP and Nuclear TigeRES.
Gizmy frames those losses as a new-team problem rather than a structural one. “The losses against NIP and Nuclear TigeRES, you could generally put them down to the fact that we were a new team,” he told HLTV. “You need a lot of reps to be drilled on defaults and stuff. So these teams that are a bit more rogue than the tier-one teams, they will push you in weird ways, you just punish it instantly.”
He drew a direct comparison to what he built at Monte, noting that reaching a high level of default discipline was a big reason that team started winning consistently before they broke into tier-one events. The focus in recent weeks, he said, has been drilling exactly that, along with shoring up CT sides that had not received enough attention early on.
At the EWC open qualifier, the team went back-to-back 2-0 in their group stage matches, which Gizmy acknowledged were against lower-level opposition. “Obviously, a bit lower level, so it’s just something we had to do,” he said, already looking ahead to a potentially grueling day of three games in a row.
Building Toward a Major
Beyond EWC, Gizmy laid out a longer horizon. “I think the general target is to make the Major, probably the same with most teams at our level and above, the tier-two region,” he told HLTV. With 100 Thieves sitting at No. 39 in the VRS rankings, there are no tier-one invites forthcoming, which means the path runs almost entirely through qualifiers.
Gizmy described the team’s schedule as “fairly decent” given those constraints, though he was clear-eyed about the reality. “As best as we could have considering we don’t have any top invites to tier-one tournaments or anything.”
On the question of style, Gizmy said the team is already playing his way. He mentioned that gla1ve and zander were receptive to his approach, and he has been consistently warm when describing his new teammates. “They’re good learners. They’re really nice people. We’re cracking a lot of jokes,” he said. The Anubis T side against Spirit came up as a genuine near-miss, with Gizmy suggesting a 2-0 win over the top-ranked team was within reach.
A month in, with the EWC qualifier still ahead of them, 100 Thieves are a team still finding their footing. But their IGL knows exactly what finding it needs to look like.
Who is Gizmy and why did he join 100 Thieves?
Jack 'Gizmy' von Spreckelsen is a British IGL who was picked up by 100 Thieves after being the sole remaining player from the Monte roster that competed at the IEM Cologne Major. He took over IGL duties from Håvard 'rain' Nygaard, according to HLTV.
What is 100 Thieves' current VRS ranking in Counter-Strike 2?
As reported by HLTV, 100 Thieves sit at No. 39 in the VRS rankings, which means the team currently has no tier-one tournament invites available to them.
What are 100 Thieves' goals for the season according to Gizmy?
Gizmy told HLTV that the team's general target is to qualify for a Major, which he described as the common ambition for most teams at their tier-two level. He also stated he will only be happy with qualifying for the Esports World Cup in the near term.