Spirit won their second trophy of the year after overcoming a resurgent Astralis squad, led by stand-in IGL HooXi.
Russian Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) powerhouse 
Team Spirit have claimed their second championship of the year at PGL Astana 2025 after they defeated a resurgent 
Astralis, 3-1, in the tournament's grand finals on Monday (19 May).
With their victory in Astana, Spirit claimed the grand prize of US$200,000 out of the tournament's US$625,000 prize pool. Spirit's championships in PGL Astana 2025, to go with their victories in BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 in January and the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 last December, also solidifies their place as the second biggest contender in the upcoming BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 behind Team Vitality.
Meanwhile, Astralis settle for second place and US$93,750 in consolation. While they fall short of the trophy, it is still a commendable achievement when considering the team was playing with 
Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen as their stand-in IGL following the benching of Casper “cadiaN” Møller in late April. This also marks Astralis' best result in an S-Tier event since December 2020, when the four-time Major-winning organisation won Intel Extreme Masters XV - Global Challenge.
Spirit defeat Astralis to win PGL Astana 2025
The PGL Astana 2025 Group Stage, which followed a 16-team Swiss System format, saw Spirit advance to the Playoffs with a clean 3-0 record while Astralis earned their spot with a solid 3-1 standing.
Spirit then started their Playoff campaign with a clean 2-0 sweep over 
Ninjas in Pyjamas at Train (13-8) and Dust II (13-11) in the quarterfinals. The team then stumbled to start the semifinals, losing at Train (7-13) to 
FURIA before securing the reverse sweep with wins at Nuke (13-9) and Mirage (13-7) to advance to the grand finals.
Meanwhile, Astralis earned the right to challenge Spirit in the championship round after pulling off back-to-back upsets over Top 10 teams in 
Natus Vincere (NAVI) and 
Aurora Gaming.
Astralis first took down NAVI in the quarterfinals, grinding out an overtime win at Nuke (16-13) before losing at Mirage (8-13) then securing the series at Ancient (13-6). The Danish squad then reverse swept Aurora in the semifinals, losing at Mirage (11-13) before dominating in Nuke (13-8) and Train (13-3) to make it to the grand finals.
1-3
Team SpiritSpirit entered the grand finals with all guns blazing, stomping Astralis 11-1 in the first half of the series opener at Dust II as the T side. While Astralis showed signs of life with four round wins after the side switch, it only took 18 rounds for Spirit to get their first win of the grand finals. 
Danil “Donk” Kryshkovets led the way with 17 frags and three assists on nine deaths, while Leonid “Chopper” Vishnyakov and Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov each had 16 frags and combined for eight assists against six and eight deaths respectively.
Astralis put up a better fight in map two at Nuke, where both sides ended the first half in a 6-6 deadlock. However, Spirit still emerged victorious with seven rounds wins in the second half behind another masterful performance from Donk. Spirit's superstar rifler put up 27 frags and four assists against 14 deaths, even securing the win at Nuke for his team with a 4K and a 3v1 clutch in the final round of the map.
With their backs against the wall in map three at Mirage, Astralis struck back just as every member of Spirit aside from Donk failed to put up an impact. After Spirit on the T side kicked things off with a three-round streak, Astralis responded with three straight wins of their own before Spirit scored another two. The Danish squad then went on a fiery 10-round streak to secure the win at Mirage, including six straight wins to clean sweep the second half.
Martin “stavn” Lund, Victor “Staehr” Staehr, and HooXi powered Astralis' win at Mirage with 17 frags apiece and 22 combined assists against 11, nine, and 10 deaths respectively. Meanwhile, Donk put up a valiant 18 frags and two assists against 16 deaths in the loss.
Up next was Train, where Astralis looked to force the grand finals to a decider as they won seven straight rounds to fuel a 8-3 first half lead as the T side. The second half then saw sh1ro lead a Spirit comeback until Donk finally woke up from a slow start, with the team notably going on a 7-1 run that gave them the lead at 12-11. However, Astralis managed to win round 24 to force overtime.
While the Danes won the first overtime round, Donk was done playing around as he led Spirit in winning the next four rounds to secure the 16-13 win at Train and the PGL Astana 2025 championship.
Sh1ro top-fragged for Spirit with 25 frags and five assists on a map-best 16 deaths while Donk pitched in with 24 frags and six assists on 19 deaths. Meanwhile, stavn and Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard shone in Astralis' last stand with 23 frags apiece and a combined 17 assists on 21 deaths each.
