NaVi succumb to reverse sweep as Furia win Thunderpick World Championship 2025

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 20/10/2025

NaVi fell to a reverse sweep as Furia fought back from 0-2 down to claim the Thunderpick World Championship trophy.

The Brazilians lost Mirage convincingly, then failed to secure their first pick of Inferno before turning the tide on Nuke.

Furia proceeded to blow NaVi away on Dust 2 and Train to claim the $500,000 (£372,537.50) prize for first place and the Thunderpick World Championship trophy.

FalleN’s heroics see Furia rally

Furia were on the ropes after Mirage and Inferno.

An incredible 2.18-rated performance from Mihal ‘iM’ Ivan had set NaVi on their way on Mirage.

Inferno was a much closer contest, with NaVi wrestling control with six of the last seven rounds to close out the map.

The loss left Furia with no room for error, and no momentum, with their key stars misfiring, but their in-game leader, Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo was there to staunch the bleeding while his teammates warmed up.

FalleN’s 14/8 CT-side K/D was instrumental to Furia’s recovery, restricting NaVi’s T-side before his companions came online on the T-side to push Furia to their first map victory.

What followed was the kind of scorelines FalleN dreams of, with Danil ‘molodoy’ Golubenko, Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato, Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis, and Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos all having key moments in Furia’s dominant Dust 2 and Train victories.

In an interview with Esports News UK, FalleN stated about his teammates, “I want them to express themselves outside and inside the server the best way I can help them. So, for me, it’s all about being sacrificial and also giving space for people to flourish.”

They certainly did as Furia secured Dust 2 13-5, before winning Train 13-1 to win the Thunderpick World Championships 2025.

It is the second big tournament win for Furia of the year, after their Fissure Playground 2 victory.

The celebrations saw the return of FalleN’s dog, Bartô, to the stage alongside puppy newcomer Paçoca.

Bo5 a bridge too far for NaVi

For NaVi, it is a bitter defeat but perhaps a necessary one going into the major cycle.

The roster has already shown a propensity to get overly satisfied with success.

In a HLTV interview, aleksib stated, “After having a nice debut with makazze in Cologne, we put our thoughts way above what we actually were.”

In that context, losing this final will do the roster little harm when it comes to keeping their minds aware of their actual level.

NaVi’s weakness in terms of firepower has been the primary criticism of the roster, however, the defeat exposed two other latent issues within the NaVi roster:

1. A weakness in their map pool
2. Difficulty in managing emotions when things go wrong

NaVi’s map pool has been an issue throughout 2025. They still pick Mirage as a home map against most opposition, despite struggling against top teams with more firepower.

NaVi converted Mirage against Furia, but the second pick for NaVi was where their shallow map pool was truly exposed.

In picking Nuke, NaVi picked a map in which they had shown poor form in Thunderpick already, losing to Aurora and The MongolZ.

Those losses were not close either: 4-13 and 3-13. But where could NaVi have gone instead?

Faced with a Furia who are showing elite form on Train, that map was left over in the veto until last, where Furia won 13-1.

Dust 2, where NaVi had shown good form previously in the tournament, was not much closer.

In the context of the map pool, which has no good second pick for NaVi, it makes sense that NaVi could win effectively a Bo3 against Furia but not a Bo5.

The task was a bridge too far for the roster, who must find a way to make vetoes less comfortable for top opposition.

The good news for NaVi is that majors don’t have Best of Five finals (yet).

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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