NIP return to form with a confident winning streak, while Spirit are still finding their rhythm after a month-long break and a shaky tournament start. Ahead of their head-to-head clash at PGL Astana 2025, we analyzed team form, recent matches, and the map pool to make a prediction for this upcoming match.
Team Form
For Spirit, this is yet another tier-1 event where they enter as favorites and are expected to handle most opponents with ease. However, they faced some issues in their opening match, narrowly winning both maps, and overall their performance looked questionable. It’s clear they haven’t hit peak form yet, and a lot will depend on their next few games.
NIP’s situation is quite the opposite. They barely qualified for this tournament, which is surprising given the prestige of the tag. The team has been struggling for the past few years but is now trying to climb back to the top.
Recent Matches
Spirit recently played against Vitality and Falcons, losing both matches. Their series against GamerLegion was close, with both maps ending 13:11 in Spirit’s favor. Matches against FlyQuest and Wildcard don’t hold much weight due to the lower level of competition. After a month-long break, Spirit are clearly having a hard time competing against strong teams, so we’ll have to keep watching their form throughout the event.
NIP, on the other hand, have been playing non-stop. They recently traveled to the LAN event Fragadelphia Las Vegas 2025 to earn VRS points — and won the whole tournament, jumping 49 spots in the rankings. They are currently on a five-match win streak, most of which were BO3s, except for a BO5 victory over Sharks in the Fragadelphia final. In their opening match at PGL Astana, NIP looked solid and convincingly defeated Virtus.Pro.
Read more: PGL Astana 2025: Day One Wrap-Up — NAVI, Astralis, and Spirit Start Strong
Map Pool
In terms of bans, we can expect NIP to remove Mirage and Spirit to ban Inferno. Map picks remain uncertain. In their first matches at PGL Astana, Spirit picked Nuke and NIP picked Train — but neither are their go-to maps.
NIP tend to favor Nuke, followed by Train. Spirit usually go for Dust2 or Nuke. Ancient is unlikely to be played. So the map pool will likely revolve around Nuke, Train, Dust2, and Anubis. Out of these, NIP should be comfortable on Nuke and Train, while Spirit will be fine with all except Train.
Prediction
Judging by their performance in the first match, NIP look in great shape. Still, Spirit remain a strong team capable of winning without much trouble. In my opinion, NIP can definitely take a map, and if the veto favors them and they start strong, they could even win the match. Every player knows how important this tournament is, and a win over Spirit could significantly boost their rankings and increase their chances of receiving invites to future events.
Prediction: Spirit win 2-1
This match is shaping up to be one of the most exciting of the tournament so far. In most other matches the favorites are clear, but here an upset is very possible.
