Over the last week, we’ve seen a ton of online CS2 action. We’ve reached the Grand Final of the Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where it’s FaZe and Virtus.pro who’ll compete on the server for the big prize. After FaZe won IEM Sydney 2023, and VP won the Roobet Cup 2023, these teams are looking to crown themselves two-time CS2 champions.

FaZe’s Thunderpick Domination

It’s all been a little too easy for FaZe in the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 so far. There’s been a lot of speculation about the future of this roster, but they’ve shown exactly what they’re made of in this series of online matches.

Credit: IEM on Twitter

It all began in the Group Stage, where SAW and Monte had no answers to FaZe’s superiority on the server. The young MOUZ roster followed in the Quarter-Finals, but experience won the day there, too. Cloud9 posed a bigger challenge, but even they were impossible to resist as FaZe romped into the Thunderpick Finals.

FaZe’s biggest strength here has come via its stars. All of ropz, broky, and Twistzz have been putting up huge numbers. When those three show up, FaZe have the potential to walk over any team on the planet. We’re struggling to see a scenario where FaZe lose this one – they should simply have far too much to offer Virtus.pro if that trio activates.

Virtus.pro’s Thunderpick World Championship Run

It’s been a good week for Virtus.pro. After winning the Roobet Cup 2023 against Monte, the Russian team find themselves in another Grand Final. You can debate the competitive legitimacy of these online tournaments forever, but if VP can get over the line in the Thunderpick Finals, they’ll be eating well over the next few months with a $250,000 winner’s prize on offer.

Credit: Adam Lakomy | © ESL

Their run to the Grand Final of the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 has been hard-fought. Every match bar one has gone all three maps, and their game against Heroic was postponed a day due to a mid-match power outage for TeSeS and sjuush. Despite the adversity, they’ve made it all the way, thanks to overperformance from Jame and FL1T.

Still, they’re yet to face anyone in the tournament quite like FaZe. If Virtus.pro are to have any chance here, they’ll need all of fame, mir, and n0rb3r7 to step up in a big way. We’re not sure they can, given FaZe’s form throughout the Thunderpick World Championship Playoffs.