9z upset Aurora in Malta as BIT says consistency is the next target in Counter-Strike 2

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.