Aurora bests 9z, BetBoom squeaks past Legacy to seal TWC playoff spots

Today was the final day of groups at the Thunderpick World Championships, with both groups playing their deciders.

Group A

Group A started with Aurora vs. 9z in their literal decider. A rematch of their opener at this event, where 9z swept their counterparts with a dominant performance. Here, however, the roles were reversed, almost literally.

As in their first game, map one was a tight contest.

Aurora started off with a very solid T-side that looked like it would be enough, winning 8 rounds on Cache. 9z wasn't easy to beat, though, fighting back with a strong T-side of their own. They pushed it to 12-11 before Aurora finally closed it out. A pump-fake comeback, but a tight game.

Also, just as in their first game, map two wasn't close at all.

Aurora was a brick wall on CT-side Inferno, holding back everything the South American offense threw at them. They prevented unneeded retakes and kept the game in their control. The 9-3 CT half was enough: Aurora won 4 T rounds quickly, sealing the game, the series, and a playoff spot.

Group B

On the other side of things, there were two games instead of one.

Their day kicked off with FURIA facing Legacy in a Brazilian derby for a playoff spot, with no direct elimination contention. Though for map one, that didn't seem to matter. Both teams traded blows in two extremely back-and-forth halves. It took almost all possible rounds for Legacy to narrowly edge FURIA out, giving them the series lead.

But after that, Legacy disappeared.

The next two maps were blowouts, with FURIA stomping Legacy. On map two, FURIA built a 6-1 lead thanks to a force-buy round 2 win. They converted that lead into an 8-4 half and, consequently, an easy 13-5 map. Easy for FURIA, but a result that makes sense. What made less sense was Legacy's performance on map three.

As T-side, they let FURIA dominate them on Mirage, giving them NINE rounds. Mirage, for reference, is currently the most CT-sided map in the pool, by a margin. They lost the game there, as there was no way FURIA was going to lose enough rounds to force OT. Nine more rounds later, the series was sealed.

Let us tell you, Legacy came to regret that.

The final match of the day saw BetBoom face off against the Brazilians, this time with elimination on the line. Based on recent form, most people would probably have picked Legacy for this game; realistically, we would too. But that's not how it turned out.

These two teams delivered a marathon banger from the very first map.

BB's pick of Nuke was a hard-fought 8-4/8-4 game, with both sides struggling to get anything working on their T-sides. It took until overtime for BetBoom to separate themselves, thanks to S1ren and Magnojez, who locked in on the final round to close it out. This map could've easily gone either way, but the BB individuals showed up big time.

Map two went the other way, though.

Taking every regulation round, this time Legacy's individuals came out to play. try especially was an absolute demon on Dust II. He fulfilled his AWPer duty on the AWPer's paradise. He was the difference maker here, as the ever-average zorte failed to make an impression. Really, only S1ren did anything for BB on Dust II, which could've been very concerning for the Russian outfit.

But disaster was avoided on map three for them.

Where try was farming on Dust II, he fell on his face on map three, Mirage. The Argentinian AWPer had a calamitous game, which would normally be fine, as zorte also messed up, but in this matchup try was needed to keep Magnojez from farming. And oh boy, did he farm. Magnojez finally showed the form that made us fall in love with him not that long ago, going 25-14 to carry his team over the line. Though he did have help from d1Ledez, who had his own 21.

Latto and arT did try to fight back, but it wasn't enough. BetBoom narrowly pipped them in another 13-11 banger, claiming the final playoff spot for themselves and setting up a date with Falcons.