What Top CS2 Teams Skipping Tier 1 Events Means For Small Orgs

As PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 gets underway, it’s impossible to ignore the absence of several of the top teams in the CS2 scene. All of Spirit, Vitality, G2, and NAVI declined their invites to the event, instead choosing a break in the calendar as opposed to more action on the server.

The impact of this is massive. Combined, the teams above won most Tier 1 LANs in 2024, with the exception of FaZe and MOUZ’s singular wins at IEM Chengdu and ESL Pro League S19. I can’t help but be excited about the prospect of seeing a new team crowned champions of a $1.25 million LAN, which is why I wanted to look at the wider-reaching implications of these top teams skipping PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025.

Teams can play catch-up in the VRS rankings

Ultimately, the VRS rankings are prize-money based. This means that smaller teams attending events that the bigger orgs skipped have the chance to play catch-up in the VRS rankings, and potentially leap-frogging them in the race for invites. An event like PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, where the prize pool is a gargantuan $1.25 million, is one I’m surprised any team would pass up the chance to play in. For teams like Spirit, whose invites are secure for a long time based on current VRS points, I can understand the logic behind taking the rest and banking on deep runs in other events.

However, for a team like Team Liquid to decline the invite, it’s sheer unadulterated madness. Yes, you’re a big name in the scene, but you’re also (at the time of writing) 10th in the VRS. You’re teetering on the borderline of not getting invited to events, and you choose not to attend the tournament where many of your ranking rivals will have the opportunity to gain crucial points in a big-money tournament. You don’t exactly set the world alight at CS2 tournaments you do attend, too. It feels insane to me, but then I’ve not done the actual maths, so maybe Liquid knows something the entire scene doesn’t.

Regardless, these smaller teams will be licking their lips at this kind of opportunity. A Playoff run at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 could secure a few solid invites for some of these teams for the rest of the year. It’s easier to make these deep runs, too, thanks to the lack of top teams to deliver an early loss in the first place.

New winners make for an interesting scene

I’m coming back to expand on this point a little. It makes sense that we saw so many repeat winners last year. They were the best CS2 teams in the world, so they won all the big events. I can’t argue with that. But I won’t lie – seeing a new team win a Tier 1 event would make for a far more interesting scene. Because most of last year’s winners aren’t in attendance, there’s a very good chance we’ll get just that.

Last year, we saw Eternal Fire come close to a LAN win at ESL Pro League Season 20. The MongolZ became real challengers towards the end of the year, while you have a team like Falcons who are vying for success by picking up the best players. If one of these teams could finally get a massive LAN championship under their belt, who’s to say it couldn’t give them the momentum they need to beat the very best in future tournaments?

That’s why I’m kind of rooting against FaZe and MOUZ at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025. Yes, they’re both among the favorites, but I think it makes a better storyline in the long run if we see a winner who just hasn’t done it before. I want to see those smaller teams take their chance with both hands in the absence of the big boys.