The second Swiss Stage of EPL Season 22 was packed with exciting CS2 esports matches, with teams bringing plenty of surprises to the show.
It was the second and final Swiss Stage of Counter-Strike 2's (CS2) ESL Pro League (EPL) Season 22. Eight teams from the previous stage faced off against eight higher-seeded organizations for the coveted Playoffs spots.
The final result of this competition was more or less predictable. Still, the path to it was full of ups and downs, making the CS2 esports scene especially exciting.
The MongolZ stumble and do not recover
The team was progressing steadily with their results and general level of performance — up to EPL Season 22.
- The MongolZ faced four underdogs in Stage 2 and lost to three of them. Seeing the Austin Major finalists and the CS2 EWC 2025 winners failing in matches against HOTU, Inner Circle, and Gentle Mates wasn’t on everyone’s bingo card. Thanks to a win over GamerLegion, The MongolZ made it to the final decider match. They then faced NAVI and got eliminated.
The casters on stream suggested that this result was partly due to the lack of local competition. We’ll need to see more from The MongolZ at international events to really know what they’re capable of.
Flawless Spirit and Falcons
It’s still quite early to proclaim their stable arc, but both Spirit and Falcons were really strong in Stage 2 of ESL Pro League Season 22. This level of performance feels like a good sign after a somewhat shaky period. The Playoffs are their next challenge!
- Team Spirit faced two underdogs and lost one map in those matches. Inner Circle managed to take Nuke with an interesting score, 13:4. HOTU wasn't able to do anything remarkable against Spirit. To advance to the Playoffs, Team Spirit defeated G2 Esports 2:0.
After their victories at IEM Cologne 2025 and BLAST Bounty Fall 2025, Spirit did not show proper results at CS2 EWC 2025 and BLAST Open Fall 2025. The team got a new player, Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich, and ESL Pro League S22 is the first tournament for this roster.
- Falcons defeated Astralis in Round 1, which was a must-win for them. Then, Team Falcons faced two of the tournament favorites: NAVI and MOUZ. After these two wins, we probably can hope that the legendary coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen has achieved team synergy from his star players.
In 2025, Team Falcons went from reaching the grand finals at big events to being unable to advance to the Playoffs at the Austin Major and IEM Cologne. Reaching the top 3 at the Esports World Cup and the top 4 at FISSURE Playground #2 is progress alright, but not the desired results for such a team.
The last big tournament for rain in FaZe?
ESL Pro League Season 22 started with a surprise. FaZe Clan decided to bench Håvard “rain” Nygaard. That happened after almost 10 years of competing for this esports organization.
It did not last long, though. FaZe Clan could not complete an eligible lineup, and the team was forced to forfeit their Round 1 match against G2. Rain was back for Round 2 and forward.
It is still unclear what actually happened and what will be the next step for this legendary player.
- Stage 2 of EPL Season 22 wasn’t too smooth for FaZe. They lost to 3DMAX but then defeated Astralis and Inner Circle with 2:0s. In the decider match, FaZe played against Aurora, and they fell as low as losing 2:13 on Map 2, Train. Still, the team managed to win that series with a super close battle on Dust II.
FaZe entered this event with a roster change. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski returned to Team Liquid, and the EPL Season 22 was the first tournament for FaZe with Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken.
A big yawn from Vitality
We still expect Team Vitality to be back on their tournament-winning trail, but the players surprised us with rather disappointing losses. Sure, Vitality recovered quickly and delivered dominating maps, but that loss over an underdog team was still disturbing.
- Team Vitality joined EPL S2, and it looked like they couldn’t wake up for Round 1. Gentle Mates defeated this powerhouse of a roster with a 0:2. Fans probably hope such lapses will not happen in the Playoffs.
After that slow start, Vitality defeated GL with 13:3 and 13:1 on Overpass and Dust II. They also took down HOTU and G2 Esports.
The decider-match opponents, G2, were the only top team standing against Vitality. There was a 13:2 on Map 1, but then Team Vitality had to pull off a comeback on Map 2. We need to see them playing against other top teams to understand the true power ahead of the Budapest Major.
We see you HOTU, Inner Circle, M8!
It always feels great to be surprised by a decent performance of unknown small teams. They did not qualify for the Playoffs, but they made a notable impact in Stage 2. Inner Circle, HOTU, and Gentle Mates promise a brilliant future for CS2 esports!
- HOTU dominated Stage 1 and advanced with three wonderful wins. You wouldn’t expect that level of performance from a team most CS2 people have never heard of. In Round 1, it looked like this Cinderella story could continue, as HOTU defeated The MongolZ, one of the top teams in VRS. Three losses came after that: to Spirit, VItality, and NAVI.
- Inner Circle also defeated The MongolZ, and they had decent rounds against other top teams: FURIA and FaZe. IC Esports even took one map over Team Spirit. It’s a great experience for the players, and we can expect more surprises from them in other big CS2 esports tournaments.
- Gentle Mates is a big esports organization, but its CS2 roster was formed only in August 2025 — they signed players from Spain. M8 performed nicely in Stage 1, and they defeated Vitality in Stage 2. Losses to MOUZ, Aurora, and The MongolZ did not let Gentle Mates move further.
A fail for G2 and other non-surprising results
As for not-that-surprising aspects of Stage 2 at ESL Pro League Season 22, we had shaky but still successful performances from FURIA, MOUZ, and NAVI. Meanwhile, 3DMAX made it to the top 8 again.
G2 Esports stumbled once again, making their win at BLAST Open Fall 2025 feel like a surprise. The team seems to have returned to its usual instability after losing two key players. The EPL Playoffs kick off on Oct. 10, with the grand final scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 12.
The next relatively big tournament starts on Oct. 15: Thunderpick World Championship 2025.
November 2025 is filled with CS2 esports tournaments, though. These include IEM Chengdu and the StarLadder Budapest Major.
