ash: "Maybe Wicadia gets top 20 this year, maybe not, but there's potential to be significantly more than that"
After Aurora took revenge on 9z to qualify for the playoffs at the Thunderpick World Championship, HLTV sat down with Ashley "ash" Battye to ask him about the team's run.
HLTV16 Oct 2026 · 1 min read
The coach admitted the start to the event, which saw Aurora suffer a tough loss to 9z in the opener, was an eye-opener after a run of good results at StarSeries and ESL Pro League.
"Maybe it's because we flew straight from the third-place game, and we didn't really have any time to rest, and we came straight here, and we had a lot of sickness.
"We're trying to trust him as much as possible because he's a guy who doesn't want to be told what to do so much.
He needs a bit of freedom and decision-making, so sometimes it looks a little strange, but his game sense is just unbelievable at times," ash said.
"You kind of give him the star player treatment, where he can just go a little bit of random sometimes." You can read or listen to the interview in full below: ash, a 2-0 victory against 9z, and you're going to the semi-finals.
It was revenge for what happened two days ago.
Opinion
Fictional bylines. Each take uses a line above and adds no facts.
The headline skips this: "The coach admitted the start to the event, which saw Aurora suffer a tough loss to 9z in the opener, was an eye-opener after a run of good results at StarSeries and ESL Pro League." That is the reading I would argue. The rest of the card does not cancel it.
Ivo Quill · contrarian
Earlier on CS2Feed
- 16 OctAurora have defeated 9z in a straightforward 2-0 rematch to secure a playoffs spot at the Thunderpick World Championship in Malta.
- 11 OctAurora have taken third place at ESL Pro League 24 with a comfortable 2-0 beating of Spirit , securing their victory with wins on Mirage (13-9) and Anubis (13-6).
- 9 OctJimpphat had a great series, posting a 1.59 rating Aurora beat 1win 2-0 in the opening ESL Pro League Season 24 playoff match at the Spodek Arena, stealing Dust2 13-9 before taking their Anubis map pick 13-8.
Related
- 3 Nov 2026ash: "Expectations rose too quickly [internally], and that means there's a lot more frustration"
- 2 Nov 2026EliGE learned Portuguese to leave Liquid, according to Pimp
- 2 Nov 2026flashie: "JT sees the game very similarly to me, so that guidance is now there. It wasn't really possible to get to that point [before]"
