9z opened the Thunderpick World Championship in Malta with the event’s first upset, beating World No. 5 Aurora in two maps and closing the series with a near-flawless Nuke.
The win arrived after a difficult spell for the South American side. Since taking the XSE Pro League Guangzhou title in July, 9z had won four of its previous 13 matches and had slipped to 17th in the global VRS. Bruno “BIT” Fukuda Lima said that run had started to affect the group’s confidence and communication.
“We had started to doubt a lot of things,” BIT said after the series. He said the team had been questioning rounds, calls and other details, and that those concerns began to show when the players were not fully on the same page during matches.
The coach also said the result meant something because 9z had gone a long time without beating a top-tier opponent. He pointed to wins over BETBOOM and TYLOO in ESL Pro League as useful steps, but said the team had not beaten a tier-one side since July before facing Aurora in Malta.
9z changed its map plan against Aurora
BIT said 9z approached this meeting differently from its recent losses to Aurora. The previous two times the teams had played, 9z picked Dust2 and did not get much out of either series, so in Malta it switched to Inferno instead.
That move gave 9z a better start to the match and set up the kind of confidence boost the roster had been missing. BIT said getting ahead early helps when a team is trying to stop doubts from carrying from one round to the next.
Aurora also adjusted its usual approach. BIT said the team normally picks Mirage against 9z, but this time it chose Nuke. He noted that Nuke is difficult when a side starts on the T side and cannot find rhythm early, and he felt 9z managed to impose its own pace anyway.
The coach said the team looked sharp across the roster, including in the pistol rounds, and singled out HUASOPEEK and luchov for strong moments. He described the match as one in which the team’s reads, individual aim and round-to-round discipline all came together.
BIT said the series was especially important because 9z had spent recent weeks trying to steady itself after uneven results at EWC, BLAST Porto, FISSURE and Pro League. He said the group had tried to stay calm rather than panic, and that it had spent that stretch looking for ways to correct problems instead of repeating the same mistakes.
He added that 9z is built around players and staff who try to keep their feet on the ground, stay calm and search for new solutions. That has included changing positions and thinking differently when a setup is not working. In his view, the team needs to keep testing adjustments until the work starts turning into results again.
“We’re a team that works hard,” BIT said. “We have to see how far we can get by changing things.”
He said the match against Aurora offered a sign that the work can still pay off against high-level opposition. At the same time, he said the team does not want to read too much into one result. The priority, he said, is to stack more wins like this one and turn them into a steadier run of form.
Major projections are not the main focus
HLTV’s latest projections give 9z a 60% chance of reaching Stage 2 of the Singapore Major, but BIT said the team is not spending much time thinking about the invite itself. He said the focus is on the tournaments in front of them and on doing better in the events they are already playing.
According to the coach, 9z is now thinking less about the Major race and more about making the playoffs in Malta and Bucharest. He said the team is also aware that Stage 3 is still a long shot, but that the immediate target remains a Stage 2 place.
BIT said that approach fits the way the team has handled pressure so far. Rather than getting stuck on one ranking or one projection, he said the roster is trying to keep working through the schedule, stay composed and let stronger results follow.
The coach said the group has already reached a stage where it is no longer obsessing over the Major invite. Instead, it is treating each tournament as its own test and trying to improve its position one event at a time. In his view, if the performances get cleaner, the Major picture will take care of itself.
Rebuilding playoff form
BIT said 9z’s longer-term goal is to get back into the playoff rounds consistently. He pointed to a strong run of playoff appearances earlier in the first half of the year and said the team needs to restore that level before thinking seriously about another title.
“If we can make it back to the playoffs consistently, I’m sure that at some point we’ll win another tournament,” he said.
The coach said 9z still goes into every event with the intention of winning it, but added that the path back to trophies begins with repeating good runs deep into tournaments. For now, that means turning the Aurora upset into something repeatable, first in Malta and then in Bucharest, while the Major race continues around them.
The Thunderpick opener gave 9z a clear answer after a stretch in which the squad had started to question itself. It also showed that the lineup can still produce a clean result against a stronger opponent when the map plan, the calling and the individual form line up at the same time.
changing from Dust2 to Inferno makes sense. if the last two times vs Aurora were dead on arrival, why keep forcing the same read?
i think the bigger thing is confidence, not the map name. BIT straight up said they had started doubting rounds and calls, so getting one early lead matters a lot there
because teams love pretending one map swap fixes a month of bad CS? one clean map veto doesnt suddenly mean the comms problem is gone.
true, but BIT said the issue was doubt bleeding into rounds. if the veto change got them ahead early, that already helps the whole team relax a bit
Aurora picked Nuke? really?
yes, and that is not as crazy as it looks. if 9z were already shaky, forcing them onto T side Nuke can still work because you want them chasing structure early. but it backfired here since BIT said 9z got their pace and even looked sharp in pistols. the veto only matters if your own start is clean.
so the plan was basically hope they trip over themselves and got outplayed anyway, nice
been there. when we were losing a lot, one early pistol and a couple clean rounds changed the whole mood instantly, even if the setup was same as before
does this actually help their major chances?
a little maybe, but not by itself. if they can beat Aurora and then stack a few more clean matches, the 60% Stage 2 number starts to feel more real.
60% projections are just there to look fancy until the next upset hits. one upset in Malta doesnt mean the Major race suddenly got solved lol
nah, the number still matters a bit. if they keep beating stronger teams, the projection only becomes more annoying for everyone else
BIT is right to downplay the Major. chasing invites instead of winning rounds is how teams stay washed
isn’t that a little harsh though? they can focus on the Major and still care about winning rounds, those things are not exclusive.
i get what you mean, but some teams really do get tunnel vision on qualifiers and start playing scared. BIT saying they stopped obsessing over the invite sounds healthy to me
how much of this do you think was actual form and how much was just a better veto? they looked rough for weeks, but switching off Dust2 and getting the better start clearly mattered. i am curious if this is the start of a real recovery or just one good read in Malta. also, do you think the playoff target in Bucharest is realistic if they keep changing positions like BIT said?
better veto helps loads, but it only works if the lads trust the calls again. seen it in zero build too, once a team starts arguing every rotate the whole lobby feels cursed
i’d push back a bit – a better veto can hide bad habits for one series, but it doesnt fix them. the real test is whether 9z can keep the same calm if they get a rough start next match. one clean upset is nice, two or three in a row is when you know the reset worked.
fair enough
near-flawless Nuke, nice
17th in VRS hurts
it does, but that is exactly why this upset matters. one big win does not fix it, yet it is better than another pointless loss and the team clearly needed a reset
yeah but if they dont chain wins, this is just one hype round. need the whole squad firing, not only one upset then back to mid table vibes
true, but one upset is still better than none
Major talk is a distraction
not really. the Major is always there in the background, but if a team stares at it too hard they start forcing plays and overthinking every loss. BIT saying they want playoffs in Malta and Bucharest first is the sane version. get the form back, then the invite talks matter on their own.
yeah, that is fair. i still think the pressure talk is overrated, but if it stops them from forcing trash rounds then fine
Aurora being world no. 5 doesnt matter if they lose the veto battle
it still matters a bit. rank is rank, but map prep can swing it hard