The final round of ESL Pro League Season 21’s opening stage is here and for bettors, the most intriguing match on the block is Nemiga Gaming vs Pain Gaming.
ESL Pro League Season 21 hasn’t gone as fans were expecting. SAW sprinted its way to a 3-0 finish while TyLoo pulled off a pair of shocking upset victories, including a win over Eternal Fire. Meanwhile, Heroic wound up as one of the first teams eliminated from the event. Six teams remain with 2-2 records. Among them are Nemiga Gaming and Pain Gaming, who will face off in an elimination match.
On March 5, 2025, the Counter-Strike teams of Nemiga Gaming and Pain Gaming will face off in an elimination match in the final round of ESL Pro League Season 21’s opening stage. The winner advances to another “CS Swiss” bracket in stage two, while the other heads home.
Nemiga Gaming has been incredibly active in online European tournaments, but is taking its talents to a LAN tournament in the ESL Pro League. It’s gone 2-2 in the event, taking wins over Heroic and Mindfreak while coming up short against NRG and Pain Gaming.
ESL Pro League Season 21 – Day 3 – Stream B – FULL SHOW
Nemiga Gaming has had a stable, Belarus-based roster for years. Four of its players have been attached to the roster since 2023, competing constantly since that time. Here’s its squad in ESL Pro League Season 21:
Nemiga Gaming is very good on Dust 2 and has been able to beat higher-ranked teams on the map. That’s the only particularly notable map for Nemiga, as they’re neither strong nor especially weak elsewhere.
Pain Gaming posted a respectable showing during PGL Cluj-Napoca, placing top eight by going 3-1 in the group stage. Its playoff run was cut short after a 2-0 loss at the hands of MOUZ but the team showed that it can compete with the best by beating Falcons during the group stage.
Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt has been at the center of Pain’s efforts in Counter-Strike and after five years, the team has worked its way into being a real threat in the upper echelons of the CS2 scene, picking up various talented players from across South America.
Pain Gaming’s best map is Nuke, but the team took a lopsided loss there against MOUZ at PGL Cluj-Napoca, so they’re not bulletproof. On the flipside, the team is dreadful on Inferno. Over the last three months, the team has gone 2-8 across 10 matches.
Pain Gaming and Nemiga Gaming will face off for the first time at ESL Pro League Season 21. Though both teams are active within their regions, they haven’t yet come together at a prominent tournament.
Nemiga vs. NRG – ESL Pro League Season 21 Play-in
Pain Gaming is favored against Nemiga Gaming, with the moneylines being 1.57 and 2.37, respectively. This indicates that Pain is a decisive favorite, but far from an unbeatable one.
Pain Gaming should be able to win its match against Nemiga Gaming. Nemiga Gaming got a big win against Heroic that boosted its standing with the bookies. They’re not on some sort of white hot run here, though. The team started ESL Pro League Season 21 with losses to MIBR and NRG, and Pain Gaming is higher-ranked than all of them.
Think you know who will win? Place your bets here!
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