Spirit, NAVI and G2 among PGL Astana invites

World No.1 Spirit will attend their first PGL event of the year after skipping Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest.

Spirit headline the invite list for PGL Astana

PGL has unveiled the invite list for its event in Astana, Kazakhstan, scheduled for May 10-18. The tier-one ranked event will have a $1.25 million prize pool, split 50-50 between teams and organizations.

Headlining the 12-team invite list are world No.1 Spirit and world No.3 Natus Vincere. Both teams will travel to Kazakhstan after skipping PGL's tournaments in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest.

Read more
PGL announce new prize pool split for Bucharest 2025

But the biggest surprise is the inclusion of G2, Eternal Fire, The MongolZ, FURIA and GamerLegion - five teams that will also be at IEM Dallas. Many had expected teams to choose between the two events as they are only one day apart.

PGL Astana adds to an already busy period for Eternal Fire, with trips to Copenhagen (and potentially Lisbon), Bucharest, and Melbourne before these two back-to-back events. Last month, Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli admitted that he was "afraid" of burnout because of the grueling schedule.

Cluj-Napoca champions MOUZ, Vitality, FaZe and Liquid are among the teams that have declined Astana invitations, which were determined using the March 3 invitational ranking.

The last four spots at PGL Astana will be filled by regional qualifiers in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. The team list for the event currently looks as follows:

Turkey Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli
Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli
Age:
34
Team:
Rating 1.0:
0.94
Maps played:
1512
KPR:
0.63
DPR:
0.66
PGL > ESL
2025-03-10 10:09
138
2 replies
no Vitality? free win for Spirit
2025-03-10 10:12
41
#78
 | 
United States Wells^
PGL audio guy begs to differ
2025-03-10 14:56
0
eternal fire 13-16th
2025-03-10 10:09
9
1 reply
#97
Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
Australia hoangii
yeah but they got a legit excuse. burn out. whats the other teams excuse?
2025-03-10 23:55
0
going to be insane event, see u there 😎
2025-03-10 10:09
8
epic
2025-03-10 10:10
8
pgl Astana > iem katowice
2025-03-10 10:11
19
#6
Faceit level 6  | 
zehN | 
Kazakhstan KumysPower
cool
2025-03-10 10:11
3
faze dodging all events with big teams or what
2025-03-10 10:12
13
3 replies
no chance against real teams
2025-03-10 10:22
11
Frozen baiting his way to CCT, nothing wrong with that
2025-03-10 10:25
6
they play IEM Dallas which starts 1 day after Astana so they dont skip
2025-03-10 10:58
9
#9
gabs | 
Romania cala07
mouz, vita, faze, liquid- 0 brain
2025-03-10 10:12
3
EF are insane, why take so many invites?
2025-03-10 10:13
35
10 replies
if they go to final it ends the 18th, and they are the 19th in Dallas, when the event ends, 1week later its Austin major... they clearly gonna burn out
2025-03-10 10:18
7
4 replies
EF are gonna get a direct invite for Stage 2/3 of the Major, since they're gonna be in Top 10 EU VRS, so they wont play "one week after Dallas" i think they'll maybe play 2 weeks after Dallas xdd
2025-03-10 10:38
5
1 reply
even 2weeks of "rest" before the major aint rest at all, plus stress, jetlag... its a tough month
2025-03-10 14:38
0
They don't event need to go to final 3rd place decidier is at that event
2025-03-10 10:39
0
1 reply
PGL Astana ends may 18th the quarters will be on may 16th semis on may 17th grand final/3rd place decider on may 18th 3rd place decider will also be played may 18th, before the grand final but even if they reach quarters (may 16th), they'll still need to play them, then pack their stuff, go to the airport, get on a plane, trip from Astana-Dallas by plane is ~20 hours, arrive at Dallas, settle down, rest for a bit and just like that its already the 18th.. like they'll have no time. this is basically G2, Eternal Fire, The MongolZ, FURIA and GamerLegion saying "hey, we're only here for the prize pool to help with our VRS ranking, and we're gonna fucking throw on purpose because we need to go to Dallas"
2025-03-10 11:31
3
Damn they really play every fucking single tournament, what the hell :D
2025-03-10 10:42
10
im starting to think that they participate in so many tournaments to make money bro
2025-03-10 13:26
2
#70
 | 
Sweden Vrede
they want some VRS points and playing all games xd
2025-03-10 13:44
0
#72
Cooper | 
Europe kuu1
They don't have anything better to do?
2025-03-10 13:55
0
1 reply
Teams should sometimes relax to avoid burnout
2025-03-10 14:04
6
Ez tyloo
2025-03-10 10:13
0
There are few teams that attend pgl Astana and iem Dallas, how are they gonna manage the travel if they make it to the pgl finals?
2025-03-10 10:18
1
4 replies
#15
 | 
Ukraine Galandec
its not just a few, there are 5 teams, especially teams like mongolz and g2 who can easily make playoff and they need to be in 3 days on other part of the world
2025-03-10 10:21
11
3 replies
I dont think it's 3, on event page Astana ends on 18th and Dallas starts on 19th. And I don't think there are many flights available, seems very strange to me
2025-03-10 10:23
0
2 replies
They will throw
2025-03-10 10:28
0
afisha.yandex.ru/moscow/sport/pgl-astana.. The ticket seller says show starts at 10 AM on Sunday so the finalists will have the time to travel I think, even though they will probably have to come and play straight from the airport in case their match is on Monday (which I believe they could negotiate with the TO in Dallas as well).
2025-03-10 10:41
0
#14
Faceit level 8 Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
zont1x | 
Russia shoras
Good team list for a CIS event imo.
2025-03-10 10:19
1
#16
Faceit level 10 Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
 | 
Spain Silber_
Great, same teams again... VRS sucks
2025-03-10 10:22
5
6 replies
What's the point of traveling to see tier2 CS anyway?
2025-03-10 10:29
0
#32
Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
rain | 
Norway Mickoo
How is it VRS’ fault? It’s the teams that are declining their invites.
2025-03-10 10:41
8
4 replies
2025-03-10 10:44
0
3 replies
#38
Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
rain | 
Norway Mickoo
So you would rather have Blast always inviting Astralis, ESL inviting EG, and ESWC inviting saudi orgs above better teams. And then give these teams points for attending? This is the only fair way. I agree there needs to be a better way for tier 2 teams to break into 1.5 and above, for example with more lower tier tournaments that give points. But the current bad version of VRS and the circuit is so much better than the 2022-23 partner league hell. VRS is still quite new and I agree it needs improvements, but «vrs sucks» is such an npc take
2025-03-10 11:00
6
2 replies
Somehow EF, 3DMAX, SAW made it from tier 2 to tier 1.5 and get invites for an every event. Nothing wrong with the system besides huge drop between T2 and T3. But Z10 makes even more cash than t1, so no problems for them kekw
2025-03-10 11:38
1
I'm just mad and envy because my fave teams won't get a chance or are not having so many invites as others...
2025-03-10 13:15
0
#17
 | 
Australia ilhamgod
vrs sucks
2025-03-10 10:22
0
Damn, the prices are unreasonably high. VIP ticket at BLAST Moscow 2019 was 5600 RUB, here it's 30k+ RUB for a single day only.
2025-03-10 10:27
4
2 replies
Post covid
2025-03-10 10:28
4
#77
 | 
Russia i0n1x
regular tickets for Epicenter 2017 cost like 500 rub a day as i remember (maybe 1000 max) LMAO 30k rub to watch some cs on the big screen is insane.
2025-03-10 14:46
0
#24
 | 
Madagascar ubiquitous
Whoever win this tournament will not count and matter because excellency vitality allowed a team win this
2025-03-10 10:30
1
again no faze, looks like they will skip like every 2nd tournament this year
2025-03-10 10:30
1
3 replies
But they'll be in Dallas, how Navi and G2 will attend Dallas which starts the day next PGL final??
2025-03-10 10:47
1
2 replies
I think its a good decision to skip a few tournaments this year and idk how they will fly and be able to play that fast from astana kazakhstan to dallas I checked it, it takes ~30-40 hours lol
2025-03-10 10:51
0
Navi won't play Dallas G2 idk, they could exchange their tickets I guess if they bow out early
2025-03-10 11:01
0
Somewhere Richard Lewis malding over his conspiracy theory that ESL control everything in esport and none of a top teams will ever attend PGL event because they all evil and shortsighted.
2025-03-10 10:34
4
9 replies
#42
??? | 
Turkey opkatte
I thought it made sense TBH, especially since iM talked about signed contracts and whatnot, but I guess in the end it probably was all about club prize pool for orgs
2025-03-10 11:08
1
8 replies
I doubt iM talk or ever knew about "super secret evil contract" between orgs and TO(ESL) and probably he talked about his contract with a Navi where it's Org decision when and where team plays
2025-03-10 11:25
3
6 replies
#50
??? | 
Turkey opkatte
But iM almost worded it like all tournaments they'll be attending this whole season or year has been determined beforehand, that's freaking crazy
2025-03-10 11:33
0
5 replies
that's just good planning
2025-03-10 14:03
0
4 replies
#82
??? | 
Turkey opkatte
I think you're missing the point
2025-03-10 15:14
0
3 replies
I'm not. people are acting like there's some big hidden deal in this ESL thing when everything has been done in the clear: they promised revenue share to orgs that sign their publicly available contract and accept their publicly available terms. the best orgs have seemingly planned ahead which tournaments to go and which to skip based on that commitment with very little (if any) input from the players.
2025-03-10 15:46
0
2 replies
#90
??? | 
Turkey opkatte
So you're telling me orgs somehow foresaw PGL taking a step back and also adding org prize pool just like ESL and BLAST and decided that they would attend Astana from the very beginning? The answer is no, if all tournaments were decided beforehand, with a damn contract at that, then they definitely would have skipped this PGL Astana
2025-03-10 16:10
1
1 reply
Spirit and Navi had already declined the invite to Dallas, so seems like Astana was in their plans all along. Liquid and Vitality will not go to Astana, so no difference there (though Liquid will go to PGL Bucharest, that does not clash with any ESL/Blast tournament) Furia, G2 and Gamerlegion are the ones that seemingly boycotted Cluj-Napoca and will now go to both Astana and Dallas. Furia was a last minute decline there, so their planning is already very suspected. and just a look at this G2 roster is enough to suspect their planning.
2025-03-10 21:31
0
It never made sense from a logical stand point. Looking how Liquid and Furia were also on board. I've been saying for a minute that it was all money talks and after the new prize pool distribution, Spirit woukd attend Astana (surprised about Navi since they're fighting for the intel grand slam).
2025-03-10 12:03
1
VRS sucks... But PGL must invite 12 team from VRS? Can't they invite like only 10 and have more invites from closed quali? Invite 8 from VRS global, more from quali and have wildcard? Idk, but mix the invites format a little to have something more diverse?
2025-03-10 10:36
9
So: EF G2 MongolZ GL Furia will play at PGL Astana that ends on 18th and on IEM Dallas that starts next day Looks like they dont believe in making semifinals in Astana :D
2025-03-10 11:00
5
1 reply
I mean, I understand Furia, they'll bomb out early
2025-03-10 11:42
6
I said that NaVi will show up!
2025-03-10 11:04
1
Nice to see Navi, Spirit and G2 attending this one.
2025-03-10 11:18
0
What lack of vrs points does to a mf(navi)
2025-03-10 11:19
1
#45
 | 
Mongolia TmJay
how are those 5 teams managing the trip to Dallas after this? seems so much work if u ask me
2025-03-10 11:21
2
1 reply
#48
Faceit level 8  | 
 | 
United States sziasztok
theyre all planning to be group stage exits, duh
2025-03-10 11:26
0
#46
Faceit level 8  | 
 | 
United States sziasztok
as a BIG fan, I ask, how tf is BIG invited?
2025-03-10 11:25
0
1 reply
Because few top teams rejected the invite ... they cant be in both events in same time .. Dallas and Astana
2025-03-10 11:50
1
Do we respect the EF grind? Hell yes, we do. But Jesus Christ, someone tell them that they DON'T need to play EVERY single tournament. They've either gone crazy or it's some conspiracy to prove how bad the new system yes
2025-03-10 12:12
0
#58
 | 
Turkey Zamazingo
first time home crowd advantage for EF
2025-03-10 12:18
0
6 replies
#62
Faceit level 10  | 
Yatoro | 
Kazakhstan trick4krg
I doubt they will have one, many kz ppl support spirit/navi
2025-03-10 12:42
7
2 replies
#63
 | 
Turkey Zamazingo
all my kazakh friends watch EF though
2025-03-10 12:53
0
1 reply
#64
Faceit level 10  | 
Yatoro | 
Kazakhstan trick4krg
That's most likely cause they are entertaining, rather than Turkish. From my personal experience Turkish ppl love other Turkic ppl more than Kazakh people do so. So I wouldn't expect same support as Kazakh team would get in Turkey. I also expect to see many Russians here cause no more tournaments there. So I wouldn't expect any crazy hospitality for EF here. But we'll will probably see such for spirit/Na'Vi/vp
2025-03-10 13:03
6
#80
 | 
Russia i0n1x
funnily it can be considered a home crowd for spirit, navi, vp, ef, mongolz lol
2025-03-10 15:02
0
2 replies
cheering for mongolz cause at least they look like us xd
2025-03-10 20:03
0
1 reply
#94
 | 
Russia i0n1x
my point lol
2025-03-10 20:22
0
BUG still inviting lol
2025-03-10 12:28
0
G2 spirit final
2025-03-10 12:30
0
#61
Faceit level 10  | 
Yatoro | 
Kazakhstan trick4krg
Pity goatwoo ain't coming :(
2025-03-10 12:41
1
#65
 | 
Russia Lessix
navi spirit final
2025-03-10 13:00
0
#67
 | 
Kazakhstan Shingis2kk
LESSGOO
2025-03-10 13:17
0
1 reply
#79
 | 
Russia i0n1x
enjoy!
2025-03-10 14:57
0
#71
 | 
Brazil MrLucas
(Probably) 4 Brazilian teams out of 16, I'm not even sure how to feel about it
2025-03-10 13:51
2
1 reply
#101
 | 
United States MrNorwood
You should feel good, that's an example of the VRS working as intended.
2025-03-17 18:43
0
ef decided that the best way to deal with a burnout is keep attending all the events? at least they get a 2 week break between melbourne and astana ig
2025-03-10 14:06
1
WW
2025-03-10 15:04
0
#83
Faceit level 9 Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
Twistzz | 
United States plsnopermaban
WTF are Liquid doing???? They need VRS points badly to make sure they get further in the major than FURIA, why the fuck are they declining Astana after already skipping cluj??
2025-03-10 15:25
0
2 replies
Astana is after the VRS cutoff for major invites
2025-03-10 15:48
0
1 reply
#88
Faceit level 9 Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
Twistzz | 
United States plsnopermaban
what about Cologne?
2025-03-10 16:00
0
Mongolz and EF are fucking insane, playing every single event.
2025-03-10 15:35
1
#85
 | 
United States TheGr8One
3 BR teams?
2025-03-10 15:37
0
1 reply
#89
 | 
Russia i0n1x
4 with qualifier
2025-03-10 16:09
0
#91
 | 
England BobDude65
Yay :)
2025-03-10 17:54
0
#98
 | 
Kazakhstan Tarob
Nooo. i wouldve come if Zywoo was there.
2025-03-11 10:15
0
#99
Faceit level 10  | 
 | 
Cayman Islands LasMedicinas
Spirit isnt playing dallas too?
2025-03-11 17:56
0
Welcome everyone, see you there at the final day
2025-03-12 02:57
0
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