The Thunderpick World Championship 2025 tend to give us some high-quality CS. Today’s group B decider match between Aurora and Venom was no different.

Aurora started the opening map looking very confident. They literally ran through Venom, giving away only 2 rounds overall. Wicadia and XANTARES were not missing a shot, dropping 19/5 and 19/7 KD, respectively. Venom tried to hit back, but couldn’t really find their footing. Aurora 13-2 Venom. We all said it’s gonna be an easy blowout. Nope.

Venom said “hold my beer”. They came back on Aurora’s pick (Overpass), and did the exact same that Aurora did, but with a bit more pizzazz. Aurora actually won the pistol round, but lost the next 9 rounds. The score at halftime was again 10-2, but this time in Venom’s favor. This time the gunning-down was done by hfah and flayy, dropping 23 and 18 kills. Wicadia looked like the only one alive on Aurora with 18 kills, while everyone else finished the map with <1.00 rating. Venom took the W with a score of 13-4, and we thought we were in for an epic decider.

Venom succumbed to the pressure of a decider LAN map, and fumbled hard. Or Aurora got their stuff together and decided to show us why are they considered the heavy favorites in this matchup.

Venom actually started the game quite nice. They won the first 2 rounds, and after some round trading, we went to the halftime with a 6-6 score. Venom looked good in the first half, so I thought we’re gonna top off the group stages of the TWC 2025 with a close and exciting finisher. But jottAAA (who was bottom-fragging on Nuke and Overpass) and the gang decided to give Venom a half to remember them by. They did them dirty, 7-0 in the second half, 13-6 overall. And just like that, Venom’s dream run got to an end.

But don’t worry Venom, we see you. The potential is real.

With that, we came to the end of the group stages, and we have the 2nd semifinal clash, where Aurora will face FURIA. They look to be in a good form, swept both OG and The MongolZ in Group A, and will not be as forgiving if Aurora have a similar “off day” tomorrow.

So buckle up, we have some high-level Counter-Strike on our hands tomorrow. See you on Thunderpick’s Twitch channel.