NAVI Junior build on YaLLa success with Thunderpick WC qualifier berth

A win over ECSTATIC net the academy team the first of 16 spots in the closed stage.

NAVI Junior have secured a spot in the Thunderpick World Championship Closed Qualifier after emerging as the victors of the organizer's first European Series.

The 24-team tournament offered one spot in the closed qualifier, along with a $20,000 prize for the winner and a $5,000 prize for the runners-up, and began with 16 teams split across four GSL groups.

NAVI Junior were among the eight teams invited directly to the playoffs based on the April 7 VRS ranking and lived up to that status, allowing their opponents to hit double-digits only once en route to the final.

ECSTATIC drew first blood in the all-important deciding match by winning Inferno 13-9, but NAVI Junior recovered with ease and scored a comfortable win on Ancient (13-8) before dominating the Dust2 decider (13-2) to secure their closed qualifier berth.

Date	Matches
Thunderpick World Championship 2025 European Series 1
05/05/2025	NAVI Junior Finished 2:0 Sashi	Match
06/05/2025	RUBY Finished 0:2 NAVI Junior	Match
07/05/2025	NAVI Junior Finished 2:0 Astrum	Match
07/05/2025	ECSTATIC Finished 1:2 NAVI Junior	Match

16-year-old Džiugas "⁠dziugss⁠" Steponavičius was at the forefront of his team's effort, averaging a 1.36 rating over nine maps, with Drin "⁠makazze⁠" Shaqiri (1.26 rating) and Dmytro "⁠dem0n⁠" Myroshnychenko (1.25) not far behind.

The result comes barely two weeks after NAVI Junior completed an impressive, undefeated run in YaLLa Compass Spring after receiving a last-minute invite, securing a $150,000 grand prize and breaking into the top 30 of the VRS in the process.

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makazze stars as NAVI Junior win YaLLa Compass

That result placed them at 22nd, enough to secure invites to notable events that the organization's main team might skip, and this Thunderpick result has allowed them to hold firm around that mark at 24th.

NAVI Junior are the first team to secure a spot in the 16-team Thunderpick World Championship closed qualifier, which will run from September 9-11 and offer four spots at the $850,000 Maltese LAN.