Vitality Skips PGL Astana 2025 as Invited Teams Announced

Vitality are the most prominent name missing after the announcement of the 12 teams directly invited to PGL Astana 2025. The team list for Counter-Strike’s trip to the capital of Kazakhstan is somewhat compromised by the tournament’s close proximity to IEM Dallas 2025, which I’ll dive into soon enough.

PGL Astana 2025 beats Cluj-Napoca for quality

The most recent PGL event in Cluj-Napoca was immediately notable for missing most of the best CS2 teams in the world. Nothing showed that better than the Grand Final between MOUZ and Falcons, two teams who would be lucky to find their way to a Final again in 2025. On that note, the PGL Astana 2025 invited team list has Cluj-Napoca beaten already.

🚨 Here are the teams receiving direct invites to PGL Astana 2025! 🇰🇿

🔥 The last four teams will earn their spots through the Qualifiers! 💥

🎫 Tickets:
🔗 https://t.co/MSD2ockw5j
🔗 https://t.co/JyeXSFB8OF#PGLAstana pic.twitter.com/HvfgCvVV11

— PGL (@pglesports) March 10, 2025

It’s going to be a very high-quality CS2 event, with Team Spirit, G2, and NAVI all in attendance. It’s very early days, but if I had to pick my PGL Astana champion based on these teams, it would almost certainly be one of these three. You’ve also got the likes of The MongolZ, Eternal Fire, and Astralis, who will be vying to check off another deep run at this event.

My biggest disappointment here is undoubtedly the lack of Vitality. They’re the strongest contenders to Team Spirit at the moment, so not having them in the tournament could make proceedings a little too easy for donk and friends. I get it, though. If attending, Team Vitality would back themselves to go all the way to the Final, which takes place on May 18th. They have also committed to IEM Dallas 2025, which begins on May 19th. See the issue? It’s a problem caused by the packed 2025 CS2 calendar, and who knows what teams like G2 and The MongolZ will do should they reach the Final, given they’re committed to both events.

The list of teams invited to PGL Astana 2025 is as follows:

• Team Spirit
• G2
• NAVI
• The MongolZ
• BIG
• GamerLegion
• Eternal Fire
• MIBR
• FURIA
• Astralis
• paiN Gaming
• Virtus.pro

MOUZ and Falcons among teams to skip PGL Astana 2025

MOUZ and Falcons, the two finalists of PGL Cluj-Napoca, have both opted to skip PGL Astana 2025. They join the likes of FaZe and Liquid in this regard, turning down their invites despite PGL’s recent changes to prize money allocation. If I had to guess, I would assume it’s for the exact same reasons as Vitality, with the teams instead choosing to prioritize IEM Dallas 2025. It makes sense – ESL’s Annual Club Incentive is quite restrictive in the number of invites you can decline to qualify, so we’ll likely see plenty more of this in the future.

With 12 teams locked in for PGL Astana 2025, four teams are still yet to qualify. These slots will be decided via qualifiers, which are set to take place later this month. Check out the dates for the qualifiers below:

Open Qualifiers

• OQ 1: March 14th – 15th
• OQ 2: March 16th – 17th
• OQ 3: March 21st – 22nd
• OQ 4: March 23rd – 24th

Closed Qualifiers

• CQ 1: March 27th – 30th
• CQ 2: March 21st – April 1st

PGL Astana 2025 kicks off on May 10th, running until May 18th.