Thunderpick World Championship 2026 Finals was nothing short of electric. The event kicked off with a huge upset, and ended with a match that kicked off Group B.
From the 8 invited teams, just 2 remained on Championship Sunday. The last hope of Brazil – the defending 2025 Champions, FURIA, and the team they knocked into an elimination game what felt like eons ago – BetBoom Team. But First, the teams that stumbled at the final hurdle, opened up the night with a fight for 3rd place.
Choking Hazard
Never the bride, Aurora fell short the day before to FURIA once again. Securing at least a consistent Top 4 with back to back Top 4s, they wanted to improve up to a 3rd place medal finish. The pressure would be on their opponents, Team Falcons, who most would have expected to be in the latter series of the day.
Much like the series with BetBoom, Team Falcons secured an early lead, but just how they ended up in this situation, the first map win into a Dust 2 pick, they looked poised to finish out the series 2-0. Starting on T-Side, they had some room to make up, trailing going into the 2nd half, but they made it back with bursts of rounds to secure an Overtime. Going into OT4, finally a hard fought Overtime would land on Team Aurora, making it Team Falcons 2nd loss on Dust 2 in the Playoffs.
They wouldn’t even make it to Overtime in Nuke. They finished the half with a 5-7 lead, and won the pistols when switching over to T-Side. Their anti-eco round left a lot to be desired, fizzling out thanks to the Force Buy from Aurora. Round after round strung together from the underdogs. Post match XANTARES would summarise it as
We played good on the fly
Making the best of wonky situations and keeping the pressure on Team Falcons, only conceding 1 more round as the bowled over NiKo’s superstar squad.
BB Team were expected to fall time after time, but match after match, Boombl4 and the core came back for more. Legacy, ended, Falcons, caged and a 5 map banger of a Grand Finals, BBT refused to have their fuse quashed.
FURIA are the 2 Time Thunderpick World Championship Winners
They were one of the favorites coming in, despite YERKINDAR falling sick. Their main competition, Falcons, didn’t even make it to them. They looked like they would choke away the series and be the latest casualty on the BetBoom Train, but a long game 4 finished just shy of OT thanks to who other than the professor took FURIA, kicking and screaming into Cache.
They led it early, piling on the pressure, once again seeing a battle of 2 minds, Fallen and Boombl4 going head to head. The half ended on a BB win
Coach sidde didn’t want to jinx FURIA when he predicted their winners, but his prediction for a last place BetBoom was just a tad off. Last leave instead.
It was a valiant effort, but in the end, FURIA came in with a heavy crown and a target on their backs – and they showed they could wear both in style.
