The last round of PGL Astana is upon us and six teams are fighting for their tournament lives, including G2 Esports and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
After a wild start to the tournament, things settled down and teams started to live up or down to expectations. They still have some work to do, though. G2 Esports made its push towards the playoffs after a 0-2 start, while NiP stayed alive after going 1-2 by beating the lowest-ranked team in the event.
Now they face off with one playoff spot on the line. Which team is advancing forward, though?
LOSER IS OUT! BIG vs G2 – HIGHLIGHTS – PGL Astana 2025 | CS2
G2 Esports will play against Ninjas in Pyjamas in a best-of-three match on May 14 to decide who advances to the playoffs of PGL Astana. Both teams have a 2-2 record in the group stage so far. The winner heads into the playoffs as one of the lower seeds, while the loser is eliminated from the event.
G2 Esports’ new roster started PGL Astana in a suboptimal fashion, taking a tough loss against MIBR and then a shocking defeat from ODDIK. Since then, the team has pulled it together for the most part. The squad took a hard-fought win over M80 to survive in the group stage and pushed its way toward the playoffs by beating BIG 2-0.
The new G2 roster is still looking to avoid a group stage exit, but has given fans a reason to hope:
G2 Esports has been very strong on Dust 2, going 13-2 to this point in 2025, and has gone 9-3 on Inferno to this point. Offsetting this is a 2-5 record on Anubis. The team has been routinely banning Train.
Ninjas in Pyjamas started PGL Astana strong with an upset 2-1 win over Virtus.pro. The team quickly returned to earth with a defeat at the hands of tournament favorite Team Spirit, and was pushed toward elimination with another tough match against Aurora Gaming. NiP then rebounded and got a 2-2 record by beating HOTU.
The NiP roster is looking to extend its stay in the biggest tournament it has played in to this point:
NIP has been grinding on the tier-two and tier-three scene throughout 2025 and has found some success playing on Inferno, Train, and Nuke. Nuke is the team’s best map, going 18-6 in 2025 so far. It’s closer to 50-50 on the other active duty maps, however.
G2 Esports has not played against the current roster of NiP. Ninjas in Pyjamas did a sweeping roster overhaul in January 2025 and the two teams haven’t played since then. The organizations have played five times so far in Counter-Strike 2, with G2 winning each time, but that isn’t directly relevant to these two squads.
Ninjas in Pyjamas is a narrow betting favorite to defeat G2 Esports in PGL Astana’s group stage. The lines stand at 1.66 against 2.17, which is close to a toss-up but is still definitively leaning to NiP. Bookies are clearly shaken by the ugly start to the event by G2.
LOSER IS OUT! NiP vs HOTU – HIGHLIGHTS – PGL Astana 2025 | CS2
G2 Esports should be able to defeat Ninjas in Pyjamas to advance to the playoffs. NiP’s run to this point is a big victory for the team, but a tough win over Virtus.pro doesn’t transform them into a squad that can routinely be favored over top-10 teams. G2 pulled itself together against BIG in many ways and they’ll likely show that here.
Think you know who will win? Place your bets here!
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