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We continue to break down what's happening at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025. The championship play-offs with a prize pool of $1,250,000 will take place there.
Among the contenders are The MongolZ and Astralis. Moreover, The MongolZ is one of the contenders for the championship and that's why this match is one of the most heresy matches of The International.
Let's see who will be stronger in the pair The MongolZ - Astralis.
Let's go.
The MongolZ form
Let's open the analysis of the match The MongolZ - Astralis with the analysis of The MongolZ's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.4.
Previously, the team played mostly in TIR-2 tournaments, where they were not always successful. Among the landmarks, they won the XSE Pro League: Online Stage and ESN National Champioship 2023.
However, the Mongolians have also made their mark on the international scene. They played at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, where they finished in the top 20-22.
- The MongolZ roster: bLitz, Techno4K, 910, mzinho, Senzu.
The conditional roster newcomers are mzihno and 910. Both players joined the team a month ago, and before that they played for local teams like Clutch and The Shine.
In the first match at IEM Cologne 2023 The MongolZ will face MOUZ, who have already reached the group stage of the tournament. As you have already realised, The MongolZ lost their match, but lost on the dopes, Ledgeiv Nuke with a score of 17-19.
Then MongolZ ran over Into The Breach with the score 2-0, and then closed FURIA with a similar score. Thus advanced to the group stage.
In the first match of the group stage of IEM Cologne 2023 The MongolZ faced Heroic. Despite the huge difference in the level of play, The MongolZ managed to take the first map and almost slammed Heroic on their own peak, Overpass, but they didn't finish and eventually lost with the score 1-2. However, it didn't go any further and the result was a top-16 finish.
After playing in the big tournament, TheMongolZ played a lot of smaller events. These included the MESA Pro Series: Fall 2023, with a top-1 finish, a win at ESL Challenger League Season 46: Asia-Pacific, and a top-4 finish at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2023.
In the 2024 season, before playing directly at the PGL CS 2 Copenhagen Major Championship 2024, MongolZ won the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: East Asia Qualifier, which guaranteed passage to the Asia-Pacific RMR. There was a Top 1 at eXTREMESLAND 2023 and a Top 20 at IEM Katowice 2024 during the break, but after a win at PGL Copenhagen 2024: Asia-Pacific RMR, where MongolZ celebrated the victory.
At PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024 The Mongolz did not achieve much success, although they managed to reach the top 16.
In the group stage of ESL Pro League Season 19 The MongolZ performed very well. They defeated Falcons and G2 Esports 2-0 to advance to the play-offs. However, the first round of the play-offs ended with The MongolZ losing to Vp with a score of 1-2, eventually finishing in the top 12.
The MongolZ went on to take the top-1 spots at MESA Nomadic Masters Spring 2024 and YaLLa Compass 2024. There were more Top-9s at Esports World Cup 2024 and a second place finish at Skyesports Championship 2024.
One of the central tournaments of the season for MongolZ was the IEM Cologne 2024 Championship, where the club managed to reach the top-12. A similar result was also at the ESL Pro League Season 20. In addition, the Mongolian club visited the IEM Rio 2024, where they got to the TOP-8.
They also played at Thunderpick World Championship 2024, where they placed TOP-1, which was a great Long Sogpeg before the Asian RMR. At the home RMR, The MongolZ came out on top by taking two matches out of two.
The main tournament of the 2024 season was PW Shanghai Major 2024. The MongolZ demolished the Opening Stage with a 3-0 win, and then secured the result at the Elimination Stage with another 3-0 win over G2, MOUZ and Heroic. The MongolZ lost in the first round of play-offs to MOUZ, who were outplayed in Bo1. Thus, The MongolZ finished in the top 8 at PW Shanghai Major 2024.
The MongolZ started the 2025 season with an appearance in the group stage of IEM Katowice 2025. There the team beat Liquid and GamerLegion, earning a slot in the first round of play-offs. The team failed to advance directly to the semi-finals: NaVi were much stronger (2-0) in the Group B final. In the play-offs of IEM Katowice 2025 MongolZ Long teamed up against Eternal Fire and although the match ended 2-0 in favour of MongolZ, it was not easy for them. However, they failed to pass Vitality and at the end of IEM Katowice 2025 The MongolZ took the top 4.
At PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 Long Sogpeg started with a match against Complexity, where they won 2-0. Then they won 2-0 against Wildcard and paiN won 2-1.
Mapple The MongolZ
The most successful map in 3 months was Ancient. The team has 100% winrate, however they played the map only 1 time.
Among the acceptable options for the peak there is Mirage with 1 win 1 loss.
The MongolZ has a minus winrate on the other maps in the competition pool.
Astralis Form
We continue the analysis of Astralis - The MongolZ match with the analysis of Astralis form. In this match they play as an outsider with odds to win at around 2.7.
The Danish club had a difficult period. They tried their best to "return" to the TIR-1 scene, but they constantly fell short: Astralis finished top-20 at ESL Pro League Season 17 and top-14 at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B.
At lesser tournaments, however, Astralis fared well. The world's most titled team finished Top 2 at Brazy Party, won CCT South Europe Series #4 and finished Top 4 at Pinnacle Cup V.
Returning to the S-Tier Championships, Astralis took Top 6 at IEM Masters Dallas 2023 and Top 8 at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups.
Prior to the BB Dacha, Astralis attended a number of other events. Those were ESL Pro League Season 18 and Roobet Cup 2023, where the once stellar Danes finished in the Top 16.
Just before the Long Convergence, BB Dacha Astralis finished in the Top 4 at CS Asia Championship 2023 and Top 8 at BLAST Premier: Fall Finals. The swing in performance is primarily due to roster manipulation.
- Astralis roster: Staehr, stavn, jabbi, CadiaN, Device.
Before IEM Katowice 2024 they played at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024. At the end of the championship the Danes made it to the top 6 and it was enough to get to the BLAST Premier: Spring Final. The IEM Katowice 2024 Astralis failed in the dust and dust: took the top 32, not passing the Play-In stage.
Then there were two attempts to get to the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, but both failed: TOP-11 at European RMR B and TOP-6 at European RMR Decider put an end to Astralis' participation in the home Major.
In the first match of IEM China 2024 Astralis played against steel helmet, as Monte could not make it to China. And if Monte had played there, the score would have been obviously not so crushing as 13-2 in favour of Astralis. Although, judging by the match with FaZe, where Astralis were a head and shoulders above FaZe, shutting down the top 1 team in the world with a score of 2-0, maybe Astralis are very energised for IEM China 2024. In the play-offs of the championship Astralis met FaZe Clan again, but this time they were weaker and lost with the score 1-2 and left the tournament.
Astralis visited ESL Pro League Season 19, where they reached the TOP-4, where in the match for the grand final Ledge and Vitality. Later, they had an identical result at CCT Season 1 Global Finals and YaLLa Compass 2024.
At BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2024, Astralis played in Group A, where they finished in the top 3. They made it to the play-offs Ledge or Vp and left the tournament at the Top 6 stage. Later Astralis played at IEM Cologne 2024, where they finished top-12.
At the ESL Pro League Season 20 Long Season they were defeated by Fnatic (1-2). Next was a match against CoL (0-2). They finished ESL Pro League Season 20 as ignominiously as they started - losing to CoL and leaving the tournament at the TOP-28 stage.
After such poor results Astralis continued their attempts to return to the TIR-1 stage. For this purpose, they played at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, where they took TOP-8 and at Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024, where they were TOP-12. As you can see, the attempts were not successful.
Astralis did well in the group stage of BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, leaving behind MOUZ, FaZe and NaVi. After winning Group A, Astralis directly qualified for the semi-finals. However, that was the end of their journey through BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, and Spirit advanced to the grand finals.
Astralis Long Sogpeg at PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B with a loss against 9 Pandas, followed by Ledgeili and Sashi Esports. They managed to come together only by the third match against B8. However, the music didn't last long for Astralis and they failed to make it to Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024.
At BLAST Bounty Season 1 Astralis Long started with a victory over Wildcard, but then - NaVi and lost. At the end of BLAST Bounty Season 1, Astralis finished in the top 9-16.
Astralis also attended IEM Katowice 2025, where they made it to the group stage, but did not manage to take high places there. TOP-12 is not a good result.
Astralis Mappul
Astralis has two 100% mappers. They are Nuke with 9 wins in 14 matches, and Anubis with 5 matches and 4 wins.
They also play Ancient (66% wins in 3 matches). Still playing Mirage (9 matches, 4 wins). Vertigo with 2 wins and 3 losses and Overpass (2 wins in 7 matches).
Do not play Inferno.
History of head-to-head meetings MongolZ - Astralis
Previously crossed paths with each other twice during the 2024 season. They exchanged pleasantries.
Predicted result of Astralis vs The MongolZ at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025
I expect a top game from MongolZ. As I said before, MongolZ look like the favourite to win the tournament for me and they should outplay Astralis without much trouble. I would be surprised if there is a different outcome.
Bottom line: The MongolZ win with a score of 2-0.
