Team Spirit vs Ninjas in Pyjamas: PGL Astana betting guide

Steven Rondina Published 10/05/2025

Ninjas in Pyjamas took a shocking victory over Virtus.pro to kick off its PGL Astana run, but can it get another win over Team Spirit?

PGL Astana is off to a wild start in terms of upset victories, with Ninjas in Pyjamas’ win over Virtus.pro being foremost among them. According to the bookmakers, this wasn’t a particularly surprising turn, but this was still a fringe top-10 team being defeated by a fringe top-40 team.

But of course, Counter-Strike fans have seen these group stage upsets on many occasions. The question now is if NiP can string together enough of them to advance out of the group stage. So can NiP get the better of Team Spirit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhWr2ivPX4E

Team Spirit vs Ninjas in Pyjamas match details

Team Spirit and Ninjas in Pyjamas will play in a best-of-three match on May 11, 2025 as part of PGL Astana’s group stage. Both teams have a 1-0 record in the group stage so far and need to get three wins in five matches to advance. Three losses results in elimination.

Team Spirit vs Ninjas in Pyjamas recent form, rosters, and best maps

Team Spirit roster and recent results

Team Spirit has been consistently strong in 2025, despite losing its spot as Counter-Strike’s top-ranked team. The Russian squad has finished in the top three of each tournament it has played to this point in the year. That includes a first-place finish in BLAST Bounty Spring and a second-place finish in IEM Katowice. It kicked off its run in PGL Astana with a win over GamerLegion.

The full Team Spirit roster is in attendance for PGL Astana:

Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov
Boris “magixx” Vorobyev
Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotja
Danil “donk” Kryshkovets
Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov

Team Spirit map pool

Team Spirit has a winning record across all maps in 2025, though it’s not far off from being 50-50 on Ancient and Mirage. That said, the team has been fearsome on Dust 2, going 14-2. Spirit consistently bans Inferno.

Ninjas in Pyjamas roster and recent results

Ninjas in Pyjamas still has name value in Counter-Strike, but hasn’t had anything to show for it in some time. The team has been competing in tier-two regional leagues and qualifiers across 2024 and 2025. It hasn’t really been doing so successfully, either. Winning PGL Astana’s European Qualifier was its biggest victory of 2025 so far, and Virtus.pro is the best team NiP has beaten in several months.

Here is the current Ninjas in Pyjamas roster:

Artem “r1nkle” Moroz
Rafael “arrozdoce” Wing
Michel “ewjerkz” Magalhães
Rasmus “sjuush” Beck
Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer

Ninjas in Pyjamas map pool

Inferno, Train, and Nuke have been Ninjas in Pyjamas’ best maps of 2025 and the team has a strongly winning record on all three. That said, NiP’s wins against VP came on Train and Ancient.

Team Spirit vs Ninjas in Pyjamas head-to-head history

NiP and Team Spirit have not faced off in 2025. Their last match came in the Shanghai Major’s European RMR tournament, with Spirit winning that match 2-0. However, Ninjas in Pyjamas dropped four of the five players from that roster, so this is effectively a fresh matchup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjhc6sOXU-U

Team Spirit vs Ninjas in Pyjamas betting odds snapshot

Team Spirit is a massive favorite against Ninjas in Pyjamas, to an almost prohibitive degree. NiP is a huge 6.73 underdog while Spirit stands at 1.1. While NiP scored an upset win over Virtus.pro, the betting sites clearly aren’t biting on NiP being a world beater in PGL Astana.

Team Spirit vs Ninjas in Pyjamas best betting picks & predictions

Core picks

Team Spirit wins 2-0 (1.51)
- Team Spirit winning decisively is the most likely outcome and while a 51% return isn’t incredible, it’s not too bad given the probability of this score
Team Spirit wins maps in under 18.5 rounds (4.11)
- Team Spirit’s wins are often blowouts and that’s especially the case against overmatched teams. That makes total round unders + win bets interesting, like under 18.5 at 4.11, under 19.5 at 3.09, or under 20.5 at 2.44

Prediction

Team Spirit should take a clean, quick win over Ninjas in Pyjamas. NiP winning against Virtus.pro is a surprise and shows some signs of life, but Team Spirit is on another level. NiP has a lot to do in terms of proving itself capable of hanging with them.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

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