Brazilian esports squad Imperial Esports faces an elimination match on Thursday at the Thunderpick World Championship 2025 following their defeat to Natus Vincere in the global Counter-Strike 2 tournament.
The upcoming best-of-three series against Team Venom is a do-or-die scenario for Imperial to remain in the Tier 1 competition. The match is scheduled for Thursday, October 16, at 2:30 PM local time in Brazil.
Imperial suffered a 2-1 loss to Natus Vincere on Wednesday. The Brazilian team, which includes player Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes, initially secured a victory on the Mirage map with a 13-10 score. However, NAVI then claimed Nuke 13-4 and Dust2 13-8 to win the series.
Imperial Esports acknowledged the setback on social media, looking ahead to their next challenge.
Defeat against NAVI in our first match at Thunderpick, 1×2 👉 Next game tomorrow at 2:30 PM, against the loser of Aurora x Venom Thanks for the support 💚#GoIMP #IMPCS2 pic.twitter.com/DD3orJYp9F
— Gamdom Imperial (@imperialesports) October 15, 2025
Team Venom is also under pressure, having lost their own opening match 2-0 against Aurora Gaming.
In other tournament action, Brazilian team FURIA advanced with a decisive 2-0 victory over OG on Wednesday. This provided a contrasting positive result for Brazilian fans following Imperial’s defeat.