The MongolZ top Group B in Thunderpick; 9z out

Cloud9 avoided an early elimination and will face fnatic for a spot in the Play-in.

Day two of Thunderpick World Championship's online stage has wrapped with The MongolZ securing a berth to the Play-in, leaving just one best-of-three between them and a spot at the $770,000 LAN final in Germany.

Date	Matches
Thunderpick World Championship 2024
22/10/2024	The MongolZ Finished 2:0 Cloud9	Match
22/10/2024	9z Finished 1:2 fnatic	Match
22/10/2024	Cloud9 Finished 2:0 9z	Match
22/10/2024	The MongolZ Finished 2:0 fnatic	Match

Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren's men topped Group B following 2-0 wins over Cloud9 in their opener and fnatic in their winners' match, bagging three 13-11 victories in a row before going on an 11-1 run against Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer and company to close out Dust2 in dominant fashion, 13-7. The results come mere days after the team finished 3-4th at Elisa Masters Espoo, losing to eventual champions ENCE in the semis.

9z's struggles against top teams since their surprise IEM Dallas run continued as they bowed out of the group in last place, conceding a 1-2 loss to fnatic to kick off the competition before losing to Cloud9 in the elimination match.

The day wasn't without strain from the Russian-majority camp, however, with Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov repeatedly oscillating between immense frustration and elated celebrations on his player camera throughout both games, including in his team's win over 9z where a 10-2 lead on Mirage was nearly squandered.

"There were two reasons," Konstantin "⁠groove⁠" Pikiner said about the frustration after the series. "To be honest, we didn't play a lot of official matches in September or October. When you don't have such tournament experience day by day, you just need to get back on track.

"The second reason is when you have such a score as 10-2 on the T side, you feel a lot of confidence, so maybe you have a lot of emotions that can't allow you to show your best game. You already won this map, you're thinking about the second, sometimes some players have such ideas in their minds. But anyway, they [9z] were pretty good as well. For example, when we even stack A [site], they just go there and we can't stop them."

Cloud9's results since adding Kaisar "⁠ICY⁠" Faiznurov, Nikita "⁠HeavyGod⁠" Martynenko, and Timofey "⁠interz⁠" Yakushin haven't inspired much confidence and that lack of play could come back to haunt them, particularly with the Shanghai Major RMR looming. They'll be put to a more difficult test with a group decider match against fnatic on Friday, with the British organization having come out on top of their last matchup in the IEM Rio closed qualifier two months ago.

Date	Matches
Thunderpick World Championship 2024
25/10/2024	Cloud9 11:30 fnatic	Match