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We continue to follow the action at PGL Astana 2025. The play-offs are in full swing, with 8 teams fighting for the $200,000 grand prize.
Among the contenders for such a significant prize are Spirit and NiP. The teams will play each other bo3 matches, where the winner will take on the winner of the MIBR - FURIA pairing. There is no last chance grid, the loser is eliminated from PGL Astana 2025.
Let's see who from the pair NiP - Spirit will be stronger and will pass to the next round, and who will have to say goodbye to the prospects of passing on the grid further.
Let's go.
Spirit Form
Let's open the analysis of the Spirit vs NiP match at PGL Astana 2025. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.3.
The 2023 season has been very busy for Spirit. The Serbian club has played wherever they can, but they have not managed to get any significant results.
They started the previous season with an appearance at IEM Master Katowice 2023, where they finished in the top 12. Then there was the local CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 2023, where they finished in the top 6.
One of the biggest tournaments of the 2023 season for Spirit was ESL Pro League Season 17, where the Dragons finished in TOP-28. They tried to make it to the Major in Paris, but again all in vain.
From the middle and up to the end of the year Spirit played at local events of small calibre. And they were quite successful, it is worth mentioning: TOP-1 at CCT North Europe Series #6, TOP-2 at CCT Online Finals #2, victory at Dunav Party LAN and Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2.
- Team Spirit roster: chopper, zont1x, sh1ro, donk, magixx.
At the end of the year, they won the BB Dacha. In 2024 BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 was the first big event of the Dragons. Spirit played frankly poorly there: they finished in the top 16 at their debut BLAST Championship, advancing to the Spring Showdown.
At IEM Katowice 2024 Spirit started their performance at the Play-In stage. There they beat Apeks 13-0 without a chance, and then confidently (except for 2 maps) beat MongolZ 2-0, thus qualifying for the group stage. The group stage was not a problem for Spirit either: after giving up only 1 map to NaVi, they easily made it to the play-offs by beating CoL and FaZe Clan 2-0. The IEM Katowice 2024 play-offs confirmed Spirit's dominance, as they easily shut down Falcons (2-0) and it was even easier against FaZe in the grand finals (3-0).
After the triumph at Katowice 2024, Spirit went to PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, where they managed to reach the play-offs, but Ledge and FaZe Clan in the first round of the main stage. Spirit took the top 8.
Spirit had a kind of successful performance at BB Dacha, but a 0-3 loss to MOUZ in the grand finals spoilt the feeling a bit.
At IEM Dallas 2024 Team Spirit had a very easy time in the group stage, not giving up a single map in the B basket. However, they didn't manage to beat everyone in the play-offs: Vitality intervened at the TOP-4 stage and knocked Spirit out of the tournament.
Later Spirit won the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024. And then came a string of poor performances, including Top 8 and Top 16 at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024.
ESL Pro League Season 20 Team Spirit started with Group B, where they defeated Ledge and MIBR in the second round of the upper grid and after dropping below, they had no trouble beating The MongolZ and 3DMAX, which allowed them to advance to the play-offs, where they beat FURIA 2-0 in their first match. Later they ran into NaVi, after their defeat they finished the pro league.
Spirit played at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, where they did not find success either. They only finished in the top 6.
At BLAST Premier: World Final 2024 Spirit started their journey from Group B, where they fought against G2 Esports, Team Spirit, Vitality and Liquid. They went 1-1, beating Vitality but losing to G2 in the playoffs seeding match. In the play-offs itself, Spirit made it directly to the grand finals, but there they were defeated 0-3 by Ledge and G2 Esports.
Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B Long They started with a win over B8. Then they lost to Passion UA, beat Aurora, lost to G2, but in the last match they beat Sashi Esports. At the Elimination Stage Spirit Long Sogpegos started with a loss to FURIA, but then defeated Wildcard and NaVi. Then in a match to advance to the full bo3, they handled Heroic. Spirit opened the play-offs of PW Shanghai Major 2024 with a win over Liquid. In the semi-finals of Shanghai Major 2024 they defeated MOUZ. In the grand finals they defeated FaZe, thus becoming world champions for the first time in the club's history.
BLAST Bounty Season 1 Long They started the qualifying round with two confident victories against Fnatic and FlyQuest. In the play-offs they also beat Heroic without any problems. Next - the expected victory against NaVi and triumph in the grand finals against Eternal Fire.
IEM Katowice 2025 Spirit started with the first round of Group B. There they demolished Astralis without much trouble, giving up a total of 9 rounds. In the match for the play-offs they played against NaVi, where they lost 1-2 in a protracted Bo3 with extra rounds on the third map Nuke. Having got to the bottom net they beat Liquid and GamerLegion, which allowed them to enter the play-offs. In the main stage they defeated Vp and NaVi in turn, making it to the grand finals, but in the match for the title they were unable to oppose Vitality: 0-3 and TOP-2.
The group stage of ESL Pro League Season 21 Spirit went the way they were expected to: 3-0. Playoffs Long Sogpegov with a hard win (2-1) over Eternal Fire. But then they lost to MOUZ and dropped out of the championship in the top 4.
At the BLAST Open Lisbon 2025 Spirit Long started with a 2-0 win over The Hans Esports. Then there was a super difficult match against MOUZ, where in an unreal series with extra rounds Ledgeili (1-2). Already in the lower net they beat FaZe with the score 2-0. In the play-offs match they closed Vp without much difficulty. In the first round of play-offs Spirit defeated their principal rival NaVi, shutting down "born to win" with the score 2-0. In the next round they met Vitality, where they gave battle, but Ledgeili with a 1-2 score, taking the top 4 at the tournament as a whole.
At BLAST Rivals Season 1 Spirit beat FlyQuest in the group, and then Ledge and Falcons. Thus, they reached the play-offs of BLAST Rivals Season 1, where they defeated Wildcard in the first round. In the next round met with Vitality, where they lost, taking the result of the match TOP-4.
At the PGL Astana 2025 Spirit Long Sogpegovali with two victories: defeated GamerLegion and NiP with a score of 2-0 in each of the games. In the match for the play-offs they beat Astralis with the same score, thus sharing the top 1 of the group stage with The MongolZ.
Team Spirit Mapple
The best map of Team Spirit is Vertigo, where the Brazilians played 5 times and won in 3 maps. Next is Mirage, with 7 games and 4-3 statistics.
The neutral choice for Team Spirit will be Nuke and Ancient. The Brazilians have 6 maps and 3-3 score on each.
The worst is Overpass (2-3) and Inferno (1-2).
NiP Form
We continue the NiP vs Spirit match with the analysis of NiP's form. In this match they play as an outsider with odds to win at around 6.
In the first half of the 2023 season NiP were remembered only for getting to Paris Major 2023 after 7th place at European RMR B, and then TOP-8-11 at the Paris tournament itself. It got better after coming out of the competition break.
NiP lost to Last Change Qualifiers at Gamers8 on the Long Crest of the second half of the year, but then played solidly at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023. They managed to reach the Autumn Finals fairly easily, beating grandees like Vitality.
NiP are approaching IEM Cologne 2023 in full readiness. Before the tournament, the team had no substitutions. This will clearly play to the Swedish club's advantage.
In the first round of the Play-In IEM Cologne 2023 Ninjas in Pyjamas met Into The Breach. The match ended in NiP's easiest outing at Ancient with a score of 16-5.
In the match to advance to the group stage of IEM Cologne 2023 NiP played against MOUZ. The mice beat the Swedes on class, giving them 19 rounds in two games. The tournament ended with NiP in the top 16.
In the 2024 season NiP seriously changed their roster, having actually carried out a complete renewal of the team.
- NiP roster: r1nkle, arrozdoce, ewjerkz, sjuush, Snappi.
In the 2024 season NiP failed in PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR A, finishing in the top 16. Things improved a bit in the second half of the year: they were top-2 at YaLLa Compass 2024, top-4 at FiReLEAGUE Global Final 2023. From the TIR-S tournaments the best performance was at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups, where NiP managed to beat C9 and FaZe, but then Astralis happened and fell to the top 8.
Later NiP played at BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2024, where they failed to repeat the success of the previous BLAST Premier tournament and as a result at the Fall Showdown "ninjas" took TOP-16. Later on, they finished Top-28 at ESL Pro League Season 20 and Top-16 at CCT Season 2 European Series #13. They also played at Thunderpick World Championship 2024, where they finished TOP-12, which is hardly a good result.
Season 2025 NiP Long Co-played a huge number of different qualifying tournaments. Ninjas in Pyjamas won only one of them - PGL Astana 2025: European Qualifiers. However, at PGL Astana 2025 NiP managed to qualify for the play-offs by winning the group 3-2, which was the Swedish club's best result in 5 months of the 2025 season.
Ninjas in Pyjamas Mappool
Ninjas in Pyjamas' top 1 map in the last 3 months is Mirage. Ninjas in Pyjamas has a mind-blowing winrate of 92% with 13 games played.
They also played Inferno, where they won 5 matches out of 7 games. Nuke is also in plus winrate, where the "ninjas" have 3 wins from 5 matches.
The most not favoured card for NiP will be Vertigo. NiP has 6 cards and only 1 win.
Head-to-head history of Ninjas in Pyjamas - Spirit
Spirit has beaten NiP twice in the last year. Both matches ended with a score of 2-0.
Predicted result of Spirit - NiP at PGL Astana 2025
In this match I expect Spirit to win unconditionally. No matter how you look at it, they are a class above the current NiP, but in addition they have already beaten NiP in the group stage.
Bottom line: Spirit win with a score of 2-0.
#258
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