There were months of qualifiers, weeks of competition and days of live event coverage at the Thunderpick World Championship. That’s a lot of Counter-Strike and from fallen GOATs to recovering rosters, this one had it all. So without further ado, here are 5 things we learned at the Thunderpick World Championship.
1. CS:GO legacy doesn’t equal CS2 success
When I first saw the line up of teams competing at the Thunderpick World Championship, I thought for sure that Falcons were going to make it to the finals weekend. I was just assuming that because of s1mple being in their ranks. But while the most GOATed CS:GO player in the world played some impressive rounds, the team found no synergy, didn’t work well together and were eliminated on day 1.
This isn’t necessarily down to skill, although those who have played multiple officials on CS2 are going to have an advantage no matter how you look at it, victories in CS:GO don’t necessarily translate into CS2.
2. MongolZ fans are craazy
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve always had a soft spot for The MongolZ. Watching them reach take down 3DMAX in the semi finals and reach the grand finals was a real treat for me but also for the huge amount of fans they had in the audience. It’s tough to keep the energy going over of bo5 series but they seemed to have no trouble at all.
CS fans have always been some of the most passionate in esports and The MongolZ fans showed us why.
3. OG are kinda back??
So first of all, the announcement that OG would even be playing at the Thunderpick World Championship was cutting it fine to say the least. Standing in at the very last minute for Unpaid, OG made it all the way to the top 4. For a team that was also playing other officials during the tournament, that’s really something.
OG has seen some of the best CS talent in the world come through their doors, including Navi IGL Aleksib. They clearly have a winning recipe of getting players into shape, I just want to see it happen while the players are still on their roster.
4. Smaller venues are great
LVL Berlin is quite a small venue for a tournament of this calibre but the space has been really well designed and the set up worked out well. At first, I wasn’t sure about having the teams play back to back but it worked out really well for getting fans as close to the teams as possible.
The 500-strong audience felt like it was a lot bigger and the energy was high throughout the weekend. There’s a different level of intimacy here that you just can’t get in an arena and it worked.
5. Picking a map doesn’t mean you’ll win it
OK, I guess we did learn this a while ago. But a lot of the games at this tournament went the way of the team that didn’t pick the map. Even in the grand finals, MongolZ and Heroic were taking turns winning each other’s maps through Dust 2, Ancient and Anubis. No amount of preparation can guarantee you a win in CS, which is part of the reason it’s such a good game to watch. You can simply work with the strategies that fit your team the best.
