Train sees little action in PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 group stage
The PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 group stage finalized this Tuesday, February 18th and just like in other tier-one LANs, Train is the least popular map of the official rotation.
We're nearing two months since Valve swapped Vertigo for Train after many pros and casuals asked for the removal of the former throughout the past few years. However, Train's inclusion has kept the map pool just as stale as it was in 2024.
Train was played just twice so far in PGL Cluj-Napoca and is tied with Anubis in that regard. They're far away from the rest — Inferno (21), Ancient (17), Dust2 (13), Nuke (13), and Mirage (11) — which suggests that fans will rarely see teams play Train throughout the playoffs.
The reason for Train's unpopularity seems largely tied to the fact that many teams had Vertigo as their perma ban, so it's only logical that they made Train their perma ban at least until they figure out the map's meta.
This becomes even more evident as the few times Train was played in 2025 it wasn't exactly pretty. Complexity and Astralis are among the few teams who played Train the most, but they look far from cracking the meta.
The way it stands it looks like fans will have to wait more to see Train being played regularly by pros, unless some underdogs give the map a try in the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 21 Play-in, which starts on March 1st.
