The first day of the Thunderpick World Championship has wrapped up with FURIA and Legacy beating BETBOOM and PARIVISION, respectively, in Group B.
Falcons also beat Ninjas in Pyjamas in their Group A opener, leaving Aurora as the only favorite to falter in Malta after losing to 9z.
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9z beat Aurora 2-0 to kick off TWC 2026
Despite all four series ending 2-0, five maps were embattled affairs, including Falcons needing overtime to close out Ancient after leading 8-4 and winning the pistol after the swap.
Legacy had to dig deep to beat PARIVISION after squandering leads of their own, going up 8-2 and 12-5 on Dust2 in their return to the server with Andrei “arT” Piovezan before falling flat on their T side.
It took until round 24 for Legacy to get the job done after PARIVISION fumbled a 3v2, and Mirage was a similar story as Legacy needed overtime and a 1.57-rated map from Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer to secure victory after leading 12-8.
BETBOOM missed out on a golden chance to increase their Major qualification odds to 93% after letting 8-4 leads slip on Ancient and Mirage against FURIA, but are still firmly in the running for an invite.
Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov‘s men will lament just how many advantageous situations they dropped throughout the series, particularly on the T side of Mirage where they managed just one round as Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis was unrelenting in his aggression and Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato was a menace, with the latter topping the charts for the series with a 1.72 rating.
Day two will see two teams lock in playoff berths in Malta, and Aurora fight to avoid an early elimination against Ninjas in Pyjamas. The schedule and matchups can be found below:
