Thunderpick World Championship returned to Malta on October 13th with 8 teams in toe. Bringing standouts from the VRS as well as some fan favorites such as FURIA and Team Falcons, the culmination of the year of TWC kicked off.
9z kick off the Thunderpick World Championship Finals with an upset
With the groups split into 2 groups of 4, players have been split on which group they thought was harder, especially so with the last minute replacement of TWC 2026 Closed Qualifier winners – Virtus.pro for Ninjas in Pyjamas.
9z showed that they were not be written off, winning their opener against a rocky looking Aurora Gaming. Taking it in a clean 2-0, the odds on favourites to make it to Top 4, would be looking at an elimination match the next time we saw them.
Inferno, 9z’s map pick, was down to the wire, requiring a huge clutch from luchov to keep them in and take the lead. From there, the Nuke pick that Aurora brought looked like it should tie up the series, but Aurora didn’t show up for the 1st half, getting flattened by 9z’s CT hold.
It was a huge way to kick off the Thunderpick World Championship Finals, with a last year’s Top 4 finishers down in an elimination match from the get go.
The rest of the day would not follow the same programming. The Major winners, Team Falcons looked shaky on Ancient, having to rally back into an overtime to not let the last minute NiP roster get the opening map over them. On Dust 2, they showed why they’re world class, finishing out the series without dropping a map.
Day 1 finishes with all 2-0 results
Legacy and PARIVISION saw both maps pan out in similar fashions, with Legacy gaining and maintaining a solid lead, before struggling to close it out and going the whole distance. Dust 2 ended in regulation time, but Jame and PARIVISION were able to take Mirage to overtime, albeit a short one, being the next in line for the 2-0 train.
To finish things out, BetBoom Team put up a decent fight against the 2025 TWC Champions, but ultimately were at no point close to making an upset of their own.
Day 2 sends 2 Teams Home and 2 to Playoffs
Being GSL style 4 team brackets, 2 wins would qualify our teams into the final 4 for Playoffs.
First up, Group A: Aurora vs NiP, a team that didn’t expect to find themselves here, vs a team that were more than happy for the opportunity. Despite looking better in their opening game, the Ninjas were very much still the underdog. Cache and Dust 2 both finished with NiP getting double digits on the board, packing up shop in tied last place.
Joining them on a flight home later in the day would be PARIVISION, wrestling back Ancient from BetBoom to draw the opener, and falling short after. Anubis was their home pick but they were evicted from the servers in a lightning fast 13-4, having to put that behind them and look towards Mirage.
Mirage fared better but it showed that the team across the board weren’t shooting on the same level as Boombl4 and the BetBoom squad.
The favorites are first through
Team Falcons punched in the first ticket to playoffs with a 2-1 win over 9z. 9z showed that that opening win over Aurora was absolutely no fluke, putting Team Falcons through their paces. The 2 sides traded 13-8/9s back to back with the Number 1 seeds coming out the other side.
9z will now have to prove that they can do it again vs the team that welcomed them to the Thunderpick World Championship Finals stage for a shot at the very final bracket.
FURIA vs Legacy, the team that won last year’s Thunderpick World Championship Finals vs the team that couldn’t make it there through the qualifiers. We spoke with latto courtside, who said that FURIA were the team they wanted to beat and prove they can be the best team from Brazil.
They opened up with the first map, taking FURIA’s map pick in a long 13-10 Cache. Going into their own map pick, they trailed against the veteren squad, being unable to establish a foothold in the game at any point.
Going to the final map of the night, the tides had very much turned towards the defending champs. Mirage was all FURIA, leading Legacy by the nose on T-Side and going blow for blow with their extended lead, securing their playoffs placement in 21 rounds.
The Top 2 made it out, but their shot at the crown has some very real contenders as Day 3 kicks off at the Thunderpick World Championship Finals 2026.
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