The first day of PGL Astana 2025 was a real event for CS2 fans, bringing a series of spectacular matches, impressive laps and strong reactions.
The tournament, held in Astana, brought together top teams that competed for glory and a prize pool of $625,000. The day began with epic duels where players demonstrated their skills and commentators never tired of praising their actions. Fans were actively sharing memes on social media, and influencers added comments that fueled interest in the competition. Especially memorable were the clutch plays and unexpected twists and turns in the matches that left fans breathless.
NAVI vs M80
2 team kills from slaxz
When score was 3:1 in favour of NAVI, M80 was about to go through the long and threw a smock on the pass. But Aleksib was standing there and caught the smok with his head, and it was awesome, so NAVI won the round.
Virtus.pro vs NIP
Ace from FL4MUS
4 kills from sjuush on pistol round
Astralis vs ODDIK
The first match was the opening match of the tournament. Astralis played with an updated roster, as HooXi had recently joined them. This match is especially memorable because of the second map, where Astralis lost a map that few people expected, with a score of 2-13, on a map they chose themselves.
The first and only bright moment was the knife from Jabbi in the second round on Dust2, which helped the team's economy.
aurora vs BIG
In parallel with the Astralis match, a real sensation was happening, aurora lost BIG , and few people expected it. The match itself began with the advantage of the Turks, who won the BIG map. But on the very next map, the Germans took away the advantage and finished off aurora on Dust2, giving them only 1 round per attack on the map.
On the first map, there was a funny moment, XANTARES dies to kyuubii 's smoke grenade, on the balcony on site A, such moments are quite rare, and even more so in large tournaments.
BIG themselves described their game as a balance of good and bad and ridiculed it in X. And in general, the team's SMM was joking around and posting memes all game long, making fun of both his team and the opponent
Also, we can't ignore the performance of hyped , who kept a 7.5 rating for the entire match and had an 8.8 rating at Inferno, and he was the driving force behind his team's victory.
G2 vs MIBR
The first high-profile upset of the tournament: G2 lost to MIBR , playing with a substitution - TaZ came out instead of Hunter , which immediately affected the team's performance. After a convincing defeat on Anubis (7:13), the team rallied on Ancient (13:8) but failed to finish the job on Nuke (11:13). The stupidest thing about this situation is that G2 was winning 10-2, but gave up a comeback and lost 11-13.
In X, Hunter himself ridiculed G2 and their game with his memes, despite the fact that if the player himself had been at the tournament, he would have had more chances. The G2 players themselves did not hesitate to make fun of the situation.
Among the highlights, TaZ won the round for his team with just a Glock, the veteran, as it turned out, still had powder in his chambers.
And also a cool moment for saffee , who was able to catch G2 on a mistake and take a 1v3 clutch.
The MongolZ vs FURIA Esports
The MongolZ once again show that Asian CS is serious. After defeating FURIA Esports on Mirage (13:4), they lost Anubis (7:13), but played hard and clear on the decisive Inferno (13:9). Senzu was the engine of victory at the start, and no one in FURIA Esports 's lineup stood out. The Mongols managed to impose their own pace - slow, smart and very effective.
Among the highlights, we can mention Senzu kicks off Inferno with a 1v2 quad-kill.
Also the moment when The MongolZ won 2vs4 afterplant.
PGL Astana 2025 is taking place from May 10 to May 18. The entire tournament is held in Astana, Kazakhstan , at the Barys Arena. Participants are competing for a prize pool of $625,000.
