Five things we learned from Thunderpick World Championships 2026

TWC 2026 ended last Sunday, and while not all the top teams attended, many of the elite squads did.

FURIA, Aurora, Falcons—these guys are all top contenders, and this was an important event for them. It was a chance to win something with Vitality and Spirit out of the picture. But only one of them seized this opportunity. The others, well, let's just say, if nothing else, they revealed a lot about themselves.

So, here are the five things we learned from Thunderpick World Championships 2026.

#1: FURIA can still win, but it's not convincing

In a season where we've often said they look like they've given up, this is a spark of hope.

It's no secret FURIA is a dead roster, and their recent form reflected it. Pretty much any time they had to fight tooth and nail against a top roster, they fell flat. They simply lacked the class they showed during their successful spell. A level of clutch they have been unable to recapture.

At TWC, they showed both class and clutch to win it.

The highlight of their run was a 2-0 sweep of Aurora in the semis, a great result. Especially because they held on in a close series. But zoom out, and it's not just that series; many of these games were really close. FURIA didn't really dominate this event like the top 2 teams usually do. This was especially apparent in the final, where BetBoom took a lead they should've converted. But, and this is a positive, FURIA came back and won despite a 2-1 deficit and an 11-11 score on what could've been the decider.

Still, if FURIA has their sights set on another S-tier event, we'll need to see more. But we've now at least seen they've still got this level to them.

#2: karrigan is washed

It's over, unc; hang it up.

We love karrigan as much as the next guy, but the second half of 2026 has shown what his FaZe tenure hinted at: he's washed. The individual level was always a talking point, but now it's sunk to a new low. He's averaging 0.81 in 2026, his lowest rating ever. While holding sites on the CT side with kyousuke, who is unfortunately not gifted with great game sense. This leads to an incredibly unbalanced hold wherever they pair up, like Mirage B-site.

And you could excuse that if the calling was still incredible, at least, but even that's been fading this season.

Falcons hasn't looked like the well-balanced destruction machine we saw at Cologne, well, since Cologne. But it's not gotten better at all. A big criticism of karrigan during his FaZe stint was that he failed to fix problems as they arose and tried solutions that only made things worse. It seems like perhaps problem-solving isn't the GOAT's forte. And that would be fine if he could still get near a 1 rating, but he can't.

Combining both factors right now just leaves this team in limbo until they reach the Major, karrigan starts trying again, and they properly play Cache. Then they'll be fine.

Until then, this Falcons team will stay "meh."

#3: NIP isn't ready yet

It hurts to say this, but NIP isn't ready for this level.

As much as I, the author of this piece, love NIP's new roster, what they showed here wasn't good enough if they want to compete properly in tier 1. No one played well in either of their series, which is a big problem for a team whose strength is supposed to be a plethora of fraggers sharing the duty.

It's a shame, because NIP is clearly good. They do well at other events.

But this step-up was still too big for them. Though playing Aurora in the lower bracket is a bit unfortunate, they didn't really put up a fight anyway, so that's no excuse. Still, you have to hope that it was a learning experience and that they'll come back stronger. That could obviously be delusion more than analysis.

In either case, we will continue to follow this project.

#4: BetBoom still got it

We won't go too deep into this, since Aizyesque already has in this piece:

But still, we want to point out that Magnojez is so darn good. This guy should be the star on a top-3 team; he easily could be, but instead he's carrying BetBoom, with zorte as his AWPer, to tier-1 finals. His fragging is up there with anyone else in the scene, bar maybe donk and ZywOo, and on his day Magnojez can match either of those guys' output; he just hasn't matched their consistency yet.

We really wish BB could shed their weight.

Imagine if they signed a really good AWPer and a reliable secondary star next to Magnojez. That's basically Spirit lite at that point, with potentially more reliable talent around the team if they recruit well. Though that's clearly fantasy, Boombl4, Magnojez, and d1Ledez as a core could go very far if they build around them properly.

Let's just pray this event wasn't a one-off, because if they stay good, they're top-class television.

#5: Teams dining out on their Major VRS are boring

We're getting really tired of teams who had a good Major (like 9z) dining out on that for the entire season. 9z has been largely disappointing so far this season, generally failing to reach the level they were at around the Major. Which is fair enough. Not everyone can stay a top-15 team forever. But thanks to their success at the Major and XSE, they've kept attending events while being bang-average.

But don't think it's just 9z, not at all.

PARIVISION is a complete waste of time as well. Every time we go, "Oh, they can be dangerous; it's a Jame team." But every single time this season, bar Bounty, it's been quarter-finals or groups. But they're also going to keep getting invites because they can play the VRS game well enough that they maintain their score. It's honestly a drag. And then we haven't even mentioned the fact that the same teams continually play each other in group stages thanks to the way seeding works.

This whole latter half of 2026 has been a big testament to why we need a change to how these invites/VRS work. Between the abuse of regions and the lull in interest that's plagued many fans we've spoken with, there's a clear need for change.

We just worry it'll stay this way for a while, since Valve isn't keen on making changes. But maybe the recent Sashi fiasco has fully woken them up, spurring change for us all.

We can dream.