BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is heating up with every stage, and we continue to bring you betting predictions. Right now, the first round of Stage 3 of the World Championship is underway, with only 8 out of 16 teams set to earn a spot in the tournament playoffs.
Today, we’re in for an exciting clash: Team Spirit vs paiN Gaming. Both teams have a real chance to win or lose, as this will be a Bo1 series. At the same time, it’s a great opportunity for a CS2 prediction — and a chance to place a bet on your favorite.
How the bookies view it: Team Spirit Favorite
Before we dive into a full analysis, let’s take a look at what the bookmakers are saying — who do they consider the favorite in this matchup?
To me, the choice is quite obvious. The odds for a Team Spirit victory are around 1.19, while paiN Gaming’s odds range between 4.50 and 4.60. That clearly shows how heavily favored Team Spirit are in this match.
However, for the sake of objectivity, let’s take a closer look at both teams and how they’ve prepared for the tournament.
Team Spirit form. What result can be expected from Team Spirit
Let’s start our breakdown with the favorites of this matchup — Team Spirit.
We’ll take a look at their recent results, including both victories and losses across various tournaments.
Place | Tournament | Format | Type | Rival | Score |
1st | PGL Astana 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Astralis | 3:1 |
3rd - 4th | BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Vitality | 0:2 |
7th | ESL Grand Slam Season 5 | Offline | Points | IGS | 0/1/0 |
3rd - 4th | BLAST Open Spring 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Vitality | 1:2 |
3rd - 4th | ESL Pro League Season 21 | Offline | S-Tier | MOUZ | 1:2 |
2nd | Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Vitality | 0:3 |
1st | BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Eternal Fire | 3:1 |
1st - 8th | BLAST Bounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier | Online | A-Tier | FlyQuest | 2:0 |
1st | Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | FaZe | 2:1 |
7th | Perfect World RMR B 2024 | Offline | A-Tier | NIP | 2:0 |
2nd | BLAST Premier: World Final 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | G2 | 0:3 |
4th | BLAST Premier World Leaderboard 2024 | Mixed | Points | Group Stage | 11150 |
5th - 6th | BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | G2 | 0:2 |
5th - 8th | ESL Pro League Season 20 | Offline | S-Tier | NaVi | 0:2 |
1st | BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 #2 | Offline | S-Tier | Eternal Fire | 3:0 |
13th - 16th | Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | G2 | 0:2 |
1st | BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | Complexity | 2:1 |
5th - 8th | Esports World Cup 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | G2 | 1:2 |
1st | BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | NaVi | 3:1 |
3rd - 4th | IEM Dallas 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | Vitality | 0:2 |
As we can see, the team has been consistently competing at S-Tier tournaments lately — and with quite some success. There were some setbacks, of course, but also major victories that speak for themselves. All of this makes Team Spirit one of the main favorites not just for this match, but for the entire tournament.
Player | Time on team | Maps played | Rating 2.1 |
chopper | 6 years 3 months | 1169 | 1.00 |
magixx | 5 years 8 months | 1043 | 1.06 |
donk | 1 year 11 months | 355 | 1.39 |
zont1x | 1 year 11 months | 360 | 1.11 |
sh1ro | 1 year 5 months | 240 | 1.20 |
The team’s coach is hally who has been with the roster for 3 years and 4 months. He has coached 538 maps with a win rate of 65%.
pain Gaming form. What result can be expected from paiN Gaming
Now let’s do the same with paiN Gaming — take a look at their recent tournaments and results.
Place | Tournament | Format | Tier | Opponent | Score |
12th - 14th | PGL Astana 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | MIBR | 0:2 |
7th - 8th | BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Group Stage | 0/2 |
13th - 16th | IEM Melbourne 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Complexity | 0:2 |
15th - 16th | PGL Bucharest 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Falcons | 1:2 |
12th - 14th | ESL Pro League Season 21 | Offline | S-Tier | Eternal Fire | 0:2 |
5th - 8th | PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | MOUZ | 0:2 |
3rd - 4th | Ace South American Masters Spring 2025 | Online | B-Tier | Eternal Fire | 0:2 |
17th - 20th | IEM Katowice 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | Astralis | 0:2 |
5th - 8th | BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 | Offline | S-Tier | NaVi | 1:2 |
1st - 8th | BLAST Bounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier | Online | A-Tier | FaZe | 2:0 |
12th - 14th | Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | FURIA | 1:2 |
3rd - 5th | Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: American RMR | Offline | A-Tier | 9Z Team | 2:0 |
3rd - 4th | ESL Challenger Katowice 2024 | Offline | A-Tier | B8 | 1:2 |
1st | ESL Challenger League SA S48 | Online | B-Tier | MIBR | 3:1 |
13th - 16th | IEM Rio 2024 | Offline | S-Tier | FaZe | 1:2 |
3rd - 4th | CBCS Masters 2024 | Mixed | B-Tier | BESTIA | 0:2 |
1st | ESL Challenger Katowice: SA Qualifier | Online | Qualifier | Fluxo | 2:1 |
27th | BLAST Premier World Leaderboard 2024 | Mixed | Points | Group Stage | 550 |
4th | BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 #2 | Offline | S-Tier | Eternal Fire | 0:2 |
5th - 8th | BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2024 | Online | A-Tier | Faze | 1:2 |
Over the past year, paiN Gaming have participated in tournaments of various formats and tiers. Looking at their results, it’s clear that this is not a weak team by any means — but unfortunately, they’ve been lacking consistency.
Player | Time on team | Maps played | Rating 2.1 |
biguzera | 6 years 4 months | 1310 | 1.14 |
nqz | 1 year 7 months | 434 | 1.10 |
snow | 1 year 1 month | 306 | 0.99 |
dav1deuS | 5 months | 84 | 1.03 |
dgt | 1 month | 15 | 1.06 |
The team’s coach is rikz, who has been with the roster for 3 years and 6 months. During this time, he has coached 884 maps with a win rate of 63%.
Recent head to head: Team Spirit Team edging it
These two teams haven’t faced each other recently, so the only information they have on one another comes from demo reviews.
Players to watch: donk and biguzera
Sometimes fans don’t support a team — they support a specific player, no matter which roster he’s on. And of course, every team has those standout individuals who are simply a joy to watch. Team Spirit and paiN Gaming are no exception.
And without a doubt, the standout star of most tournaments is donk — a true phenomenon of our time and a young talent who, at just 18 years old, became the HLTV top-1 player. On top of that, he’s already collected numerous awards and is known for his incredible playstyle. Currently, his HLTV 2.1 rating sits at an impressive 1.43.
For paiN Gaming, the player to watch is biguzera. Throughout this tournament, he’s repeatedly carried his team to victory with clutch plays and smart decisions. A seasoned player who’s always exciting to follow.
Probable map picks
Next, let’s talk about the map we’re likely to see in this match. The situation is tricky, since it’s a Bo1 — both teams will aim to ban their opponent’s strongest maps, but there’s also a chance they’ll try to bait the other side into picking a map they’ve secretly been preparing for some time.
I believe we’ll most likely end up on either Dust2 or Mirage. These are fairly standard picks, and both teams are quite comfortable playing on them.
But let’s dive deeper into the map veto and see what we can figure out.
Which maps does pick and ban most often Team Spirit?
Here is the table with the teams’ map results over the past few months.
Category | Map | Winrate | Notes |
Strongest maps | Dust2 | 90.0% | 9W-1L First Pick |
| Train | 75.0% | 3W-1L |
| Anubis | 71.4% | 5W-2L |
| Nuke | 70.0% | 7W-3L |
Average performance | Mirage | 62.5% | 5W-3L |
Weakest maps | Ancient | 40.0% | 2W-3L |
As we can see, Team Spirit — as expected from a top-tier team — has an excellent winrate across almost all maps. That’s why I believe paiN Gaming will most likely ban Dust2. Still, there’s a chance the Brazilians have something special prepared for this matchup.
So if it’s not Dust2, Mirage seems like a very likely pick.
Which maps does pick and ban most often paiN Gaming?
Now let’s move on to paiN Gaming and take a look at their strongest and weakest maps.
Category | Map | Winrate | Notes |
Average performance | Dust2 | 42.9% | 3W-4L |
| Nuke | 42.9% | 3W-4L First Pick |
Weakest maps | Mirage | 33.3% | 1W-2L |
| Inferno | 28.6% | 2W-5L |
| Anubis | 0.0% | 0W-4L |
| Train | 0.0% | 0W-3L |
Looking at paiN Gaming’s recent map results, it’s genuinely hard to predict what to expect. Some might even wonder how this team made it to Stage 3 of the Major in the first place.
But let’s stay focused on the maps. I believe they’ll start by banning the maps where they have a 0% winrate. What’s left will likely be Dust2 or Mirage — unless Team Spirit decides to test out some of their strategies on less standard maps.
Predicted result of the match
So, we’ve reached the decisive moment and it’s time to make a prediction for this match in the first stage of BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025. Taking into account all the information and stats above, the most reasonable pick would be a victory for Team Spirit.
Even though paiN Gaming looked solid during the previous two stages, Team Spirit is excellent in Bo1 formats and knows how to secure wins in them.
That’s why my prediction is a Team Spirit victory.
Team Spirit is one of the strongest teams in the world and is currently in great form — every player without exception. That’s exactly why I believe they are far ahead of their opponent, making them the clear favorite according to most CS2 betting tips.
#11
Falcons
#9
FURIAWatch match
