Patryk Stachowiak
Team Spirit claimed the PGL Astana title after defeating Falcons in the best-of-five grand final, taking the series 3-0 (Dust2 16-12, Mirage 13-7, Ancient 13-10). The win ends a nine-month trophy drought for the Russian squad and marks their second consecutive title at this event, having won PGL Astana’s debut edition in 2025.
The opening map on Dust2 was defined early by Danil “donk” Kryshkovets struggling out of the gate. The young star started 0-6 and failed to find his rhythm throughout regulation. Spirit still built a 12-9 lead but could not convert any of their three map points before overtime. That buffer gave donk time to reset. He then went 7-2 in overtime as Falcons’ key players went quiet, allowing Spirit to take Map 1.
Mirage and Ancient Were No Contest
Mirage told a different story. Falcons produced virtually nothing on their T side beyond a pistol-round win and a Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin 1vs3 clutch. A solid start on CT side kept the scoreline from getting embarrassing, but Spirit were never under real pressure, running out 13-7 winners.
Ancient followed the same pattern. Spirit surged to an 8-1 lead by neutralising Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov completely, holding him to zero frags across the first nine rounds. They converted one of their six match points to seal a 13-10 victory and the series.
Spirit beat Falcons in Astana. Source: Official Facebook
Spirit Go Back-to-Back in Astana
The title is Spirit’s second in Kazakhstan’s capital. Their previous Astana win was followed by back-to-back trophies at IEM Cologne and BLAST Bounty, making the omens favourable. With donk and company hitting form at the right moment and Vitality showing some fragility, the race for the next Major title is wide open.
MVP of PGL Astana 2026
Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets wins his first HLTV and MVP award of the year at PGL Astana.
donk. Source: HLTV twitter
karrigan’s Grand Final Curse Continues
Falcons have now accumulated six second-place finishes since signing m0NESY. Finn “karrigan” Andersen acknowledged before the match that the team has not had sufficient time to build a competitive map pool for a best-of-five format. That context is real, but the lack of fight shown across all three maps is harder to explain away.
karrigan’s Grand Final Curse Continues. Source: HLTV
karrigan has framed his role at Falcons as a long-term project and will get time to impose his system. The problem is that many of the structural issues visible under previous leadership have carried over, and that will keep the criticism coming until results change.
PGL Astana Grand Final Stats
Final Stats. Source: HLTV
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