Listen, we aren’t advocates for gambling here at tl;dr, but we really have to give FURIA some credit for their willingness to gamble.

One of the two pleasant surprises at PGL Astana, they finished fourth in their debut event with molodoy and YEKINDAR, and they provided a lot of fun in doing so. Seeing YEKINDAR back to his best was a joy to behold and molodoy? Well, that kid has fans in us.

FURIA kicked off their playoffs with a win over MIBR in the quarters, then had us all dreaming in the semis as they opened the series against Spirit with a comfortable win on Train. Spirit never really looked threatened for the two remaining maps, but that’s not the point. The point is that FURIA actually managed to make a game against Spirit look competitive. In 2025. Wild.

One team that didn’t surprise us in Astana was the team that took the biggest gamble of all, NIP. They may have lost to Spirit in the quarter-finals, but getting there was all that mattered for them in their first tier-one LAN.

Blowing up their roster and starting again was a huge gamble considering the murky waters of VRS we were about to swim into, but now it’s paying off. Considering all of the garbage we’ve seen that organisation churn out in the last however many years, it’s nice to see.

The second pleasant surprise was that HooXi finally got to prove why G2 benching him was one of the worst decisions they’ve ever made. In just one event he’s turned an utterly abysmal Astralis into a team that can take a map off Spirit in a grand final, and dare we say it, actually somewhat likeable, too.

Christ, admitting that sent a chill down our spines.

Astralis made it to the final with a 2-1 win over Aurora, which included a 13-3 drubbing on the deciding map, Nuke. A result that makes us want to rant about Aurora disappointing us - again - we won’t do that this time, but only because we’re too happy for HooXi to actually care.

We will be going in on their quarter-final opponent, though, because we don’t care how much better Astralis looked at this event. They should never be beating NAVI. You’ll have to read on for that rant.

So, Astralis, for once we commend you. As the headline says, 99% of gamblers quit before they win big. You should’ve gambled on HooXi being the missing ingredient a long time ago, but you’ve done it now and it’s working.

Just don’t go and do what you always do and fuck it up.