Team Spirit And SAW Qualify For Thunderpick World Championship 2023

By Tit Krajnik

18 Sep 2023

Tit Krajnik 18 Sep 2023

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Team Spirit and SAW qualify for Thunderpick World Championship 2023
Spirit and SAW round up the list of teams who reached Thunderpick World Championship 2023 through qualifiers
Only six more spots left to be filled

Counter-Strike (Getty Images)

Team Spirit and SAW are the final two Counter-Strike teams to qualify for Thunderpick World Championship 2023 after winning the European Series #2. With ten spots filled, there are just six more slots available for the $500,000 Counter-Strike tournament.

SAW and Team Spirit reached the finals of Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2 on Sunday, September 17, which earned them a ticket for the upcoming Counter-Strike esports tournament. Both teams dominated the European qualifiers, as neither dropped a single map in the competition.

While they still need to face off in the grand finals, SAW and Spirit have already secured invites for the main event.

SAW kicked off their Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2 campaign in the third round as one of eight high-seed teams, where they crushed Looking4Org (2-0) and added another dominant victory against OG (2-0) in the quarterfinals.

On Sunday, SAW faced off against the new and improved Into the Breach, but even the British CS:GO team proved no match for the Portuguese, who won 16-8, 16-8 to secure a spot in the grand finals. Team Spirit looked just as impressive on their road to the big stage; however, they had it a bit easier.

After beating Sprout (2-0) in the third round of European Series #2, Team Spirit pocketed a forfeit win against 9z Team due to their participation in the ESL Pro League Season 18 and disposed of MiBR (2-0) in the semifinals to earn an invite to the $500,000 event.

Even though both squads performed admirably well as a whole, they both had one standout player. João "story" Vieira played a key role in his team's success in the qualifiers and heads into the finals as the fourth-highest-rated player of the tournament with a 1.34 performance rating.

On the other side, Team Spirit's newest signing, Artem "ArtFr0st" Kharitonov, who joined the team in July, has averaged a 1.42 performance rating so far and is the highest-rated player of the tournament.

SAW and Team Spirit now join eight other teams who are already confirmed to compete in Thunderpick World Championship 2023, including Wildcard Gaming, M80, Complexity Gaming, Nouns Esports, MOUZ, BIG, and two directly invited teams in Heroic and ENCE.

Thunderpick World Championship 2023 is set to kick off on October 27, 2023, featuring 16 Counter-Strike teams who will fight for the lion's share of the $500,000 prize pool. Even though the qualifiers were played on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the tournament will be played on Counter-Strike 2 as one of the first esports events played on the new CS game.