DEPO dusts Ground Zero to book PGL Astana Asian CQ finals
PGL Astana 2026's Asian closed qualifier started today with DEPO taking on Ground Zero in the opening match. DEPO cleared the West Asian qualifier while Ground Zero made it from the Oceanic qualifier and The Huns booked a direct closed qualifier grand-final spot after winning the East Asian qualifier. The first best-of-three started on Ground Zero's pick of Anubis where the Aussies started on the CT-side and fumbled the anti-eco after winning the pistol.
DEPO capitalized on the fragile CT-side economy and ran off to a 5-1 start before conceding a post-plant, giving Ground Zero a way back into the half. The Australian side could not make the most of it, still conceding a 3-9 disadvantage in the first half. buster and kade0 finished Anubis with ADRs in excess of 100 as the former put up a 2.50 rating game to fetch DEPO a 13-3 win on Anubis.
The second map took us to Dust2 which mirrored the opening map. Ground Zero started on the CT-side again and ended up conceding yet another 3-9 disadvantage. DEPO sprinted to match point right out the gate in the second half but Ground Zero strung up five T-side rounds in a row as vision and pz stepped up late in the game. However, it was too little and too late for Ground Zero as DEPO locked in the single round they needed and closed Dust2 13-8, wrapping the series 2-0.
kade0's 131-ADR, 2.06 rating game made the difference as DEPO eliminated Ground Zero and advanced to the grand-final where they stand just a single best-of-five win away from making it to PGL Astana 2026.
Ground ZeroDEPO| Ground Zero |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ethan 'vision' Holst |
30 - 30 | +0 | 92.1 | 70.3% | 1.12 |
| Jordan 'pz' White |
26 - 27 | -1 | 74.9 | 70.3% | 0.99 |
| Jack 'Omichella' McLoughlin |
21 - 29 | -8 | 61.1 | 75.7% | 0.85 |
| Kalan 'sliimey' Lorenzo |
20 - 27 | -7 | 57.4 | 70.3% | 0.78 |
| Tom 'apocdud' Henry |
17 - 32 | -15 | 56.8 | 64.9% | 0.68 |
| DEPO |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aidos 'kade0' Khairzhan |
40 - 25 | +15 | 125.0 | 78.4% | 1.89 |
| Timur 'buster' Tulepov |
31 - 18 | +13 | 79.7 | 86.5% | 1.56 |
 Shoxjahon 'shoxs' Sultanbaev |
26 - 23 | +3 | 73.6 | 75.7% | 1.21 |
| Amirbek 'wetfy' Timurov |
25 - 23 | +2 | 58.6 | 75.7% | 1.03 |
| Axmadjon 'sh1seido' Sattarov |
20 - 26 | -6 | 54.7 | 83.8% | 0.88 |
Also read
