Insider Gaming spoke to Peter ‘Asuna’ Mazuryk after 100 Thieves’ Valorant Esports World Cup 2026 triumph, which delivered 100T their first international title.
Asuna reflects on 100 Thieves’ 3-1 EWC Grand Final victory, Valorant paying him back, and what the victory means for the organization.
Insider Gaming interviews Asuna at the Esports World Cup 2026
You famously said, ‘I just wish as much as I gave to this game, it gave a little bit back to me.’ How do you feel about that today?
Definitely funny that… You know I’ve never been an emotional person in the sense of trying to show the fans that side of me just cause I think esports should be just pure videogames, and I don’t like to make people feel sad, even for me, even for everything I’ve gone through.
Obviously, there’s so much in my story that I could say that all these years I haven’t just cause I don’t think it’s up to anyone to feel guilty for the things I go through, because it’s a blessing to be able to play professional Valorant and it’s an esport.
So I just take everything. I’m happy to be here even with all the sacrifices I made, and I don’t know. Maybe I should have said it sooner.
What does it feel like to be able to come out on top with so many great rosters at this event?
It feels like this tournament has 16 teams, and everyone is so skilled and so good. That we were the ones to come to our ahead puts us in title contention every single time we’re at a tournament.
It’s never like ‘Oh, 100 Thieves, they’ll never make it, they won’t win.’ We can win, we will win, and just happy to have that confidence because I feel like it’s a dam, and now that we’ve broken the first floodgate, we’ll just keep going.
It felt like you had perfect game plans, especially on Breeze and Sunset. How did you achieve those?
Yeah, our coaching staff stayed up all night to make sure we had good game plans; I made sure to get my beauty sleep as best as I could. It’s very hard when you have Grand Finals the next day.
They did a good job, and they showed us the plan and everything, and it made perfect sense. We played them before in Regionals, so we know what to expect.
They did throw a little curveball banning Fracture instead of Split, but we were ready for that, and after that, we came out ahead.
You had a big comeback on Ascent. Trailing at 3-9, what were your emotions?
Definitely a little scared. You don’t want to get reverse-swept; it’s obviously in the back of your mind whether you like it or not. But you have to live with the world of what is happening in front of you, but we were okay with that, honestly.
In the first six rounds, we were definitely a bit slow, indecisive, scared, but then we got the last three out of six, and we knew that we could keep going if we got pistol, and we did.
100 Thieves is an org with a lot of history in FPS games. How important do you think this win is for the organisation?
I think it’s very important, especially with the drought of trophies, especially from the Valorant side. So, just happy to get another one, and the last one we won was [VCT Americas] Stage 1 in 2024. So, it’s been a while, two years, and just happy to win again.
I feel like every two years, I go on a nice run. In 2020, I won First Strike. Obviously, it doesn’t mean much, but it was nice. 2022, I went on the Champs run, and we made Champs. An amazing moment. 2024, I had my Shanghai run, and now in 2026, I win EWC.
So, it’s nice, and hopefully, you know, I can actually keep a streak going rather than winning every even year.
With Stage 2 coming up and the latest patch being so recent, how are you going to stay on top of the meta with such a short turnaround?
Yeah, I think it wasn’t that big of a shake-up. I feel like most people are still running stuff they did in London in the previous stage. If anything, they’re refining it more.
The meta is just going in one direction, and yeah, I think going into Stage 2, it’ll definitely be a little bit different with map pools changing, but we’ll get on top of it and be the best.
End of Interview
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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