Team Spirit entered PGL Astana 2025 as the strongest team in the race, so everyone expected them to finish either 1st or 2nd. Their victory against Astralis was fully deserved and should give Danil “donk” Kryshkovets more confidence ahead of the Austin Major.
Team Spirit’s Path to Victory
Spirit started PGL Astana with three perfect matches: 2 – 0 against GamerLegion, 2 – 0 against Ninjas in Pyjamas, and 2 – 0 against Astralis. Thanks to these results, they were able to avoid the other strong teams in the playoffs and had a relatively simple path to the Grand Final.
This path was blocked by NiP and FURIA, two teams that were ranked 29th and 19th respectively at the start of the tournament. The matches proved to be more challenging than expected but in the end, the stronger side won, largely thanks to donk’s exceptional performance.
In the Grand Final, Spirit encountered Astralis, a team they had already defeated in the group stage. On top of that, Astralis hadn’t played in the Grand Final of an S-tier event in more than four years.
This favorable matchup was expected to lead to a quick victory for the Russian crew, so the 3 – 1 score didn’t surprise anyone. If anything, Astralis should be applauded for winning a map and causing serious problems on another.
For their victory, Spirit will receive $200.000. But more importantly, they have cemented their place in the global rankings. Everyone knows that Team Vitality and Team Falcons are currently the world’s strongest CS2 teams. The battle for 3rd place takes place between MOUZ and Spirit.
With a little bit of luck, we could see donk in the Grand Final of the upcoming Major.
