On October 27, the Thunderpick World Championship Playoffs will kick off, and we can finally announce the teams joining the lineup. The top-tier teams fighting it out for the final $500,000 prize pool include Heroic, FaZe, and Cloud 9 together with another 5 teams in the top 20 World Ranking according to HLTV.
These teams will join the squads who have qualified for the Thunderpick World Championship Playoffs during the 4 Series played in the summer of 2023. These teams include rising stars Mouz and Complexity.
Thunderpick World Championship Playoffs: Full Lineup
| Invited Teams | World Ranking | Qualified Teams | World Ranking |
| Heroic | 4 | Mouz | 11 |
| FaZe | 6 | Complexity | 17 |
| Cloud 9 | 8 | SPIRIT | 19 |
| Virtus.pro | 10 | BIG | 20 |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas | 12 | SAW | 29 |
| Liquid | 14 | M80 | 41 |
| Fnatic | 15 | Nouns | 57 |
| FURIA | 18 | Wildcard | – |
Top-Tier Teams
With so many high-quality teams playing, the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 will surely crank up the excitement. We talked to some of the teams and this is what they had to say about the tournament:
- “We are very excited to play in this tournament. It has a really solid lineup of teams and we are eager to play at a top-tier event. Now that CS2 is out, competitive experience is more important than ever. Hope we can pull off a good show.” – Virtus.pro
- “FURIA is very excited to play at the Thunderpick World Championship. We are happy to receive the invite to participate and we will do our best to represent Brazil on our quest for the title.” – FURIA Esports
- “We’re excited to play at Thunderpick World Championship, one of the first large scale competitions to be hosting CS2 where new ideas and players flourish. I hope we will be able to show what we’ve been working on!” – Chris “dexter” Nong, In-game Leader Fnatic
CS2 or CS:GO?
With the recent launch of Counter-Strike 2, many have been asking whether the playoffs will be played on the new game. This is still up for discussion as Thunderpick is working with both the teams playing and service providers. Of course, we will let you know as soon as this is decided so make sure to keep in touch with us via social media for the latest Thunderpick updates.