
Astralis and FaZe Clan are going head to head yet again at PGL Bucharest, and it’s an odd one from a betting perspective.
The first half of 2025 continues to be a sprint for Counter-Strike 2 esports fans and competitors, and it isn’t stopping. The next prominent event on the calendar is PGL Bucharest, which boasts a $625,000 prize pool. A number of notable teams passed on competing in the tournament, but that has made room for some fringe contenders to compete against established top-10 squads.
Astralis is one of those fringe contenders these days, and the team will be welcomed to the event by the formidable FaZe Clan. But how do these two teams match up and how should you bet on this match?
FaZe Clan and Astralis are going to play in the opening round of PGL Bucharest 2025’s group stage. The match is a best-of-three, and will take place on April 6, 2025. Teams need to win three matches in order to advance to the playoffs and are eliminated after losing three matches.
FaZe Clan hasn’t been particularly hot in 2025, but hasn’t necessarily been bad. The team fell short of the playoffs in IEM Katowice and eliminated early from BLAST Open Spring. Offsetting this is a fourth-place finish in PGL Cluj-Napoca, but even that was the team falling short of expectations.
This follows FaZe Clan’s addition of Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski to the roster, though his individual performance has been solid thus far:
FaZe Clan hasn’t been particularly remarkable on any map in 2025. Officially, it has a winning record on Mirage, Ancient, and Nuke while losing the majority of its games on Anubis, Dust 2, and Inferno. Zooming out, this is about where FaZe Clan was prior to EliGE’s signing but his exact impact on the team is not yet fully known.
Astralis shocked fans by finishing third in PGL Cluj-Napoca, but the team crashed back to earth in BLAST Open Spring as one of the event’s first eliminations. The team will be looking to rebound and make a push back to the top 10 in the rankings with this roster:
Over the last six months, Astralis has been dreadful on Mirage, going 5-11. Its best maps have been Inferno and Nuke, going 13-8 and 10-7, respectively. The team also instabans Anubis.
FaZe Clan and Astralis played against each other twice in 2025. The first time was a 2-1 win for Astralis in a third-place decider. The second was a 2-0 win for FaZe Clan during the group stage of BLAST Open Spring.
FaZe Clan is the decisive betting favorite against Astralis at PGL Bucharest, with the moneylines being 1.5 against 2.56. Astralis got a big win over FaZe Clan not long ago, but bookies are not taking the bait.
FaZe Clan will get the win over Astralis in PGL Bucharest. While the third-place decider in PGL Cluj-Napoca happened, it’s an outlier in multiple ways. The overall body of work of both teams point toward FaZe Clan getting the win.
Think you know who will win? Place your bets here!
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