Nouns smash Party Astronauts to round out Thunderpick CQ Days 3 & 4

The Thunderpick World Championship 2024 North American Closed Qualifier #1 has reached the semifinals as two more days of play have come and gone. With it, a number of ESL Challenger League teams have been sent packing while M80, Wildcard, NRG, and Nouns remain in the hunt of the qualifier's sole spot in

Legacy 2-0 Carpe Diem

Due to BOSS forfeiting versus LAG, day three of the qualifier only saw a single match played between Legacy and Carpe Diem. Even then, this series ended up being something of a wash as Legacy won their T-side on Inferno 10-3 before taking the map with a confident 13-7 scoreline before internet issues on Vertigo forced Carpe Diem to throw in the towel at an 11-3 scoreline, giving Legacy an easy road into the quarterfinals.

Legacy 0-2 NRG

Heading into day four, the matches began with Legacy facing off against NRG on Vertigo. This opening map was a decisive affair for the Americans as they won their CT-side 9-3 before posting a perfect T-side to take their opponent's map pick 13-3. Moving onto NRG's map pick of Ancient, NRG once again began the map in the lead with an 8-4 half with a strong T-side despite conceding the opening pistol round.

Moving into the second half, Legacy won their second pistol round of the series and used this momentum to close ground against NRG, winning five of the next seven rounds to tie things up at 10-10. However, any momentum they had slipped away as NRG won the next three rounds in a row to win Vertigo 13-10 to close out the series 2-0.

M80 2-0 Mythic

The next series saw M80 make quick work of Mythic to eliminate the stream team from the competition. Map one, Ancient, began with M80 winning their T-side 10-2 before they posted a perfect CT-side to win the map 13-2, giving Mythic very few inroads to fight back. Anubis was a bit more competitive, with M80 winning their T-side narrowly 7-5, however their third pistol round win of the series paved the way for M80 to mount a dominant CT-side that ultimately secured them the map 13-8.

LAG 0-2 Wildcard

The penultimate series of day four was the closest of the bunch as LAG and Wildcard played two close matches on Vertigo and Ancient. The first map saw Wildcard start their T-side off with a 6-1 lead before slipping a bit and only winning the half 7-5. This misstep did not dissuade them too much however, as they held a tight grip on their lead while never conceding the advantage before taking Vertigo 13-8. As for Ancient, the opening half was a one-sided affair for Wildcard as they won their CT-side 9-3 despite LAG winning the opening pistol round.

After switching sides, LAG had a strong chance of forcing a third map, outpacing Wildcard in the round counter, however despite LAG finding double digits, they never managed to take the lead away from Wildcard as the latter team won the map 13-10 and sent LAG packing.

Party Astronauts 0-2 Nouns

The final series of the day saw Nouns take a confident 2-0 win over Party Astronauts on Mirage and Nuke to lock in their spot in the semifinals. Starting on Mirage, Nouns were utterly dominant as they started off with an 11-1 T-side that gave PA very little breathing room as Nouns kept up the pressure to take the map 13-4. This pressure let off a little on Nuke as the map opened with both teams trading blows to end the half with an indecisive 6-6 half. After switching sides, Nouns were very quick to break this deadlock as they once again demonstrated their strong recent form as they won the first five rounds in a row on their T-side to set themselves up in a pole position to win Nuke 13-7, letting PA only take a single CT round.

With the quarterfinals done, the semifinals are set to kick off today at 06:00PM as M80 will be taking on Wildcard while NRG will square off against Nouns.