PGL Astana is bringing in some fresh faces to take on established top-10 teams, but you wouldn’t know that Virtus.pro vs Ninja Pyjamas is one of those matches based on the betting odds.
These two organizations have loads of history in Counter-Strike, with legendary fan-favorite teams and comical or controversial breakups in equal measure. While VP has mostly been near the top of Counter-Strike for years, that hasn’t been the case with NiP. Fate has brought these two teams back together, but what’s the outcome going to be here?
Here’s a full betting breakdown for this PGL Astana group stage match.
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The first round of the PGL Astana group stage will include a match between Virtus.pro and Ninjas in Pyjamas. The match will take place on May 10, 2025, and will be a best-of-five.
Virtus.pro’s performances in 2025 have fluctuated wildly. The team started the year with a strong top-six showing in IEM Katowice and made the top eight in other notable tournaments. Most recently, it bombed out of IEM Melbourne with a 0-3 group stage run.
VP’s roster remains intact despite some shakeups to its coaching situation:
Virtus.pro has been strong on Dust 2 and weak on Anubis, with unremarkable results elsewhere to this point. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though the team has struggled to a 3-7 record on Mirage and 2-5 record on Anubis. VP routinely bans Nuke.
Though it remains a legacy name in Counter-Strike, Ninjas in Pyjamas has been a decidedly third-tier team to this point in 2025. Almost all its action in 2025 thus far has been unsuccessful qualifier runs. Even with PGL Astana, the team needed four tries to clear open qualifiers.
NiP’s current, Sweden-less roster includes the following players:
NiP has been grinding in qualifiers in 2025 and has a decent sample size for all seven active duty maps. It has a win rate above 70% on Inferno, Nuke, and Train. Nuke is its best map, going 17-6 to this point. It’s closer to even on all the other maps, however.
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This is a legacy rivalry, but Ninjas in Pyjamas has only played against Virtus.pro once so far in Counter-Strike 2 history. That match was in 2023 at the Thunderpick World Championship. Both teams have overhauled their rosters since then, so there’s no real data for how these teams match up.
Virtus.pro is only considered a slight favorite against Ninjas in Pyjamas for this group stage match.
Virtus.pro should score a decisive win over Ninjas in Pyjamas. The betting lines for this match are actually surprising, as VP has been a fringe top-10 team throughout the year while NiP is fringe top-40. NiP isn’t on any kind of a hot streak and hasn’t quietly upset high-end teams in online events, either. VP isn’t a world beater right now, but this should be a fairly easy win.
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