Closing failure sees The MongolZ miss out on Playoffs at Astana

The MongolZ have been knocked out of PGL Astana 2026 after a close 0-2 loss to Aurora which ends The MongolZ's Playoffs chances. The MongolZ had started the tournament strong, going 2-1 up early on and were one BO3 win away from making Playoffs but losses to Falcons and Aurora sees them knocked out in 9-11th place with a 2-3 record.

Also read: The MongolZ fumble at the end to drop to must-win territory

Aurora looked to catch The MongolZ off-guard with an Overpass pick to get things going but it was mzinho with a quad kill in the CT pistol with the Dualies handing The MongolZ the opening pistol. Early impact from mzinho saw The MongolZ go 4-0 up before Aurora found two in a row and it looked like they would tie up the score as the broke their opponent's economy but in a round with one save AWP and an M4A1S, it was a multi-kill from the USP of cobrazera that saw The MongolZ steal a fifth and mzinho continued his multi-kills, 910's AWP found rhythm and The MongolZ ended the opening half with an 7-5 score.

Source: PGL

woxic led the retake for Aurora to hand them the CT pistol and they went on a five-round streak to go 10-7 up before it was 910's AWP found crucial impact to get The MongolZ their first T round. A couple of well-oiled A hits saw The MongolZ retake the lead on Overpass and had the map all but in their bag before Aurora stole an eleventh with nothing but pistols after their A stack worked out perfectly. Aurora managed to hold on for a 13-11 win as mzinho's incredible 31 kill show went in vain.

The MongolZ started Mirage with the pistol and conversion but there was nothing on the gun rounds on their T side as Aurora fielding a double AWP set up won out the half, going 8-4 up. Techno's quad kill handed The MongolZ a much needed pistol and it was Techno with the multi-kills, clutches and more multi-kills keeping The MongolZ alive and bLitz and co. even went on to take the lead at 9-8. A XANTARES 2hp clutch against cobrazera saw Aurora get back on the board and with woxic's AWP finding late impact, Aurora closed out Mirage at 13-10 to take the series with a 2-0 win.

Source: PGL

The win sees Aurora become the final team to make the Playoffs at Astana while The MongolZ head home with a disappointing 2-3 record.

PGL Astana 2026

Bo3

The MongolZ

0 - 2

Aurora

All maps

The MongolZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold	44 - 33	+11	94.3	63.8%	1.28
Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold	33 - 30	+3	80.7	80.9%	1.15
Anarbileg 'cobrazera' Uuganbayar	26 - 35	-9	62.6	74.5%	0.86
Usukhbayar '910' Banzragch	25 - 31	-6	51.3	63.8%	0.82
Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren	26 - 34	-8	67.4	76.6%	0.82

Aurora	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Caner 'soulfly' Kesici	35 - 27	+8	82.0	74.5%	1.38
Özgür 'woxic' Eker	35 - 29	+6	77.2	63.8%	1.17
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş	37 - 32	+5	81.0	74.5%	1.17
Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli	27 - 31	-4	71.6	66.0%	0.98
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın	29 - 36	-7	78.5	63.8%	0.94