The 2025 CS Asia Championship has advanced to the playoff stage after an intense group stage featuring top teams from across the global Counter-Strike scene.
Sixteen teams from Europe, Asia, and the Americas have congregated in Shanghai, China, for a major LAN tournament before teams begin to focus on the StarLadder Budapest Major.
As the playoffs approach, we look at the six teams that have qualified and now have a chance to win the championship.
How Teams Advanced to the Playoffs
The playoff hopefuls came from two GSL group stages, both double-elimination formats, and three teams per group.
The teams that came first in their groups got the privilege of going directly to the semi-finals. The second and third teams will enter the playoffs from the quarter-finals.
Fnatic’s Journey with Roster Changes
Fnatic brought in Mykyta ‘jackasmo’ Skyba on loan this Saturday to replace Cai ‘CYPHER’ Watson after their win at Fragadelphia Blocktober. This certainly raised a few eyebrows, considering Watson helped them qualify for the Major.
Fnatic was able to reach the upper bracket final after defeating both paiN Gaming and TYLOO despite their Major roster uncertainty. They’ll start their playoff journey in the quarter-finals against 3DMAX, as they lost 2-1 to HEROIC.
HEROIC Looking to End Season Strongly
HEROIC failed to qualify for the Major because it did not perform well in the ESL Pro League Season 22. It hopes to win a tournament in 2025.
A Norwegian organisation has beaten B8, FUT Esports and FNATIC to the top of Group B and qualified straight to the semi-finals. The winner of the Legacy vs FUT Esports quarter-final will play against them.
Team Liquid Finding Form with ELiGE’s Return
Jonathan EliGE Jablonowski is back, and Team Liquid are already looking much better. Liquid has not had the best of times in 2025.
They began their campaign with a 13-9 win against GamerLegion, before taking out MIBR 2-0 to qualify for the playoffs. They swept Legacy to claim the top seed of Group A by finishing the game with a reverse sweep of 2-1. The semi-finals will be played against the winner of Fnatic – 3DMAX.
Legacy Continuing Their Rise
Legacy has proven itself on the world stage since its success at the BLAST.TV Austin Major.
They kicked off their Group A campaign with a commanding 13-2 victory, followed by a 2-1 win over 3DMAX. Even though Team Liquid lost the first map, Team Liquid eventually won the game, Team Liquid qualified for the quarter-finals, and will play against FUT Esports.
FUT Esports Building Momentum
After rebuilding the roster in May, FUT Esports became a confident team that is heading towards the end of the year.
After beating FaZe Clan in the quarter-finals, they lost against HEROIC in the semis, and they dropped. After a convincing 2-0 sweep of PaiN Gaming, the Ukrainian team secured the right to a rematch against Red Militia for the final playoff slot. Dmytro ‘dem0n’ Myroshnychenko starred in the event, winning the series in 2-1 fashion.
Their opponents in the quarter-finals will be Legacy, another team showing good potential.
3DMAX Securing Final Playoff Spot
The team with the highest rank, 3DMAX, qualified for the playoff teams. The French team began Group A by crushing The Huns Esports 13-1, before falling to Legacy 2-1 and dropping down to the lower bracket. After a 2-0 clean sweep of Lynn Vision Gaming, they played against Virtus.pro. After losing the first map, 3DMAX won Inferno and built up a 10-2 lead on Train after the first half of the decider, winning the map and moving on to play Fnatic in the quarter-finals.
Playoff Schedule
After the completion of the group stage, the next exciting phase is on! The playoff bracket will see 6 of the remaining teams compete for the championship.
- Fnatic vs 3DMAX.
- Legacy vs FUT Esports.
- Team Liquid vs the Winner of Fnatic/3DMAX.
- HEROIC vs Winner of Legacy/FUT Esports.
The PGL Twitch and PGL YouTube channels will follow all the actions.