PGL Bucharest 2025 is a tournament that will go down in history as one of the most emotionally charged, storyline-driven, and surprising tournaments in CS2. From disappointing results, fairytale runs, and the whirling storm of rumours surrounding certain rosters, PGL Bucharest was a fascinating look into what happens in a Tier One tournament when some of the most dominant organizations in the scene aren’t in attendance. In this – the first of our tournament retrospective articles – we’re going to take a look at what went down in the Playoffs, the takeaways, and what this could mean for the teams involved in the run-up to the BLAST Austin Major in June.

Falcons

Of course, we have to start with the tournament victors. Falcons had one hell of a turnaround in Bucharest, starting with a miserable 0-2 run, losing to Complexity and GamerLegion without winning a single map. With their backs firmly against the wall, and surrounded by a vortex of roster rumours, it seemed all but guaranteed that Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov’s last ride with the Saudi org was destined to end with a whimper.

Sometimes, however, magic does happen. Slowly but surely, Falcons began to grind their way into life. A 2-1 victory over PaiN staved off an early exit and gave Falcons a chance to hang onto their Bucharest dreams. A comfortable 2-0 victory over Rare Atom, with the Chinese organization only netting eight rounds over both maps, saw Falcons make their way into a Round 5 matchup with MongolZ, who were one of the heavy favorites coming into the tournament. A victory over the MongolZ thrust the Falcons into the Finals, where they took down GamerLegion and FaZe to make it to the Grand Finals against, of course, G2.

Falcons’ run in Bucharest is one of those moments which, as a fan of Counter-Strike, serves to reaffirm the beauty of the game in its purest competitive form. Of course, a dominant run from a well-oiled team playing perfect CS is always going to be an enjoyable watch, but sometimes it’s the ‘skeleton team’, surrounded by rumours, with their backs to the wall digging deep and finding that extra gear that just reminds you how much excitement and passion our game can offer.

Naturally, for Degster – the event MVP – PGL Bucharest 2025 is bound to be bittersweet. His first trophy, and his first event MVP, will doubtless feel amazing (his IRL bhops after closing out the final map are testament to this), but getting benched 24 hours later to make room for the AWPer whose team you dominated in the Grand Final, and all the career uncertainty which that creates, will certainly sting. For Falcons as a whole, they have proven that they can play a solid, winning brand of Counter-Strike and, whilst Degster played his heart out in the latter stages of the tournament, picking up Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov is only going to fuel that fire.

G2

The story of the Grand Final of PGL Bucharest 2025 cannot be told without looking at it through the other lens – the more tragic lens. Surrounded by the same roster rumours as Falcons – namely, losing superstar AWPer Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov to the Saudi org – G2 came into the Quarter Finals with both momentum and a palpable sense of stoicism, having beaten GamerLegion, Rare Atom, and Complexity in fairly dominant fashion. Their Quarter Final matchup against Virtus.pro was close, with a 13-11 victory on Dust II and a 13-9 victory on Mirage. G2 put an end to Complexity’s fairytale run in the Semis, with m0NESY dropping a 1.70 HLTV rating on Anubis, and a 1.56 on Dust II. With a total of 43 kills over both maps, the young AWPer did what he does best – dominate, and win. Heading into the final, it was truly anybody’s game…or, at least, that’s how it felt.

Unfortunately for G2, they never really got started in the final, with Mirage, Nuke, and Ancient going 13-5, 13-7, and 13-8, respectively, in favor of Falcons. Unfortunately for Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa, he had a particularly rough performance, only netting 8 kills on each map for a 3-map total of only 24 kills. It wasn’t the performance any of the G2 players would have wanted – even less so considering it was the last series played with m0NESY donning the Samurai armour. Heading into the run-up to the BLAST Austin Major in June, G2 have questions to answer about the scale of the roster rebuild and the manner in which it will take place. 

FaZe

For FaZe Clan, PGL Bucharest 2025 will likely leave the team feeling somewhat underwhelmed. As is typical with the Finn “karrigan” Andersen-led squad, FaZe appeared to start slow and ramp up the energy throughout the tournament. Losing 1-2 to Astralis in the opening round was an unfortunate start, although a Round 2 bounce-back against a decent-looking PaiN showed promising signs. A dominant victory over Rare Atom in Round 3 gave the impression of a classic FaZe playoff run, with the team looking like they were increasing in strength, only to fall 0-2 to an impressive-looking Complexity in Round 4. 

FaZe Clan dusted themselves off and dealt with an Apogee who had had a frankly astonishing run in Bucharest, before dispatching of 3DMAX in brutal fashion in the Quarter Final (with the French roster only netting five rounds in the entire match). Unfortunately for Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski’s new team, Falcons proved a step too far in the Semi Finals, with FaZe ultimately losing 2-1 in an exciting matchup.

For FaZe Clan, this is certainly a good sign. Whilst, of course, the team would have wanted to take the trophy, there are a few promising signs. The team appear to be settling into their roles a little more comfortably, with both EliGE and David “frozen” Čerňanský having good events. Helvijs “broky” Saukants, under pressure from the community for his lacklustre AWPing performances of late, also had something of a resurgence in Bucharest, although an underwhelming 6-17 performance in the final map of the Semi-Final was an unfortunate note to end the tournament on. On the whole, things are looking up for FaZe, as they keep up the grind ahead of the Major.

Complexity

Complexity is a team that came into Bucharest with fairly limited expectations, despite heading into the tournament with an 11-0 win streak. With recent additions Danny “Cxzi” Strzelczyk and Nicholas “nicx” Lee in the squad, few could have anticipated the number – and quality – of scalps the NA roster would take over the course of the tournament. Starting out strong with a 2-0 victory over eventual champions Falcons, Captain Ioannis ‘Johnny’ “JT” Theodosiou said in an interview with HLTV that ‘it feels good to finally be winning some games’. Well, win some games they did. A 2-1 victory over FURIA – with the Brazilian team only winning a total of five rounds in the final two maps – saw Complexity face off against an in-form G2 in Round Three. A very close match between the two saw G2 come out victorious, resulting in Complexity facing FaZe clan – and EliGE – in Round Four. 

The NA team came into the match with something to prove, and it showed. A solid 2-0 victory against EliGE and co thrust them into a Quarter Final bout with Aurora (who, for those of you who may have missed it, purchased the entire Eternal Fire roster recently). Continuing their fairytale run, Complexity put Aurora to bed 2-1, and entered the semi-final ready for revenge against G2. Unfortunately for America’s heroes, G2 proved to be too strong, and the beautiful run ended in a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski’s squad.

PGL Bucharest 2025 has shown the world that Complexity are not a roster to be overlooked. Whilst losing a player of EliGE’s stature is never going to be easy, the NA squad appear to be finding consistency and quality of late. Heading into a Major on home turf, Complexity will doubtless be looking to find another deep run, bolstered both by their performance in Bucharest, and the home-crowd advantage.

Some Key Stats

Here are some of the key statistics from PGL Bucharest 2025, so you can get a read on the tournament with just a quick glance.

Five Top-Rated Players Of PGL Bucharest 2025

1. m0NESY (G2) – 1.27
2. KSCERATO (FURIA) – 1.20
3. HeavyGod (G2) – 1.18
4. NiKo (Falcons) – 1.17
5. hallzerk (Complexity) – 1.17

Five Top-Rated Teams of PGL Bucharest 2025

1. G2 – 1.09
2. GamerLegion – 1.07
3. FaZe – 1.07
4. Falcons – 1.06
5. Complexity – 1.06

3DMAX

This was something of a disappointing tournament for 3DMAX. The French organization has it in them to be exciting, chaotic, and unpredictable when they’re playing their A-game. However, their relentless approach to aggression on both sides of the game can, on a bad day, simply be a little too predictable to well-drilled teams with solid protocols. Bryan “Maka” Canda’s team started strong in Bucharest, with victories over MongolZ and Astralis in the opening rounds. An impressive victory over Aurora saw the Frenchmen into the Quarter Finals, with momentum and confidence behind them.

Unfortunately for 3DMAX, the Quarter Finals was where their aggressive playstyle fell short. They came up against a well-prepared FaZe Clan who destroyed them 13-0 on Anubis before continuing the punishment on Nuke with a 13-5 victory. FaZe’s understanding of 3DMAX’s tendencies, combined with rock-solid defaulting and midrounding, saw to it that the French team, despite a hot start, fell by the wayside in brutal fashion.

Heading into the run-up to the Major, 3DMAX will have a lot of preparation to tackle. On their day, their wild and unpredictable approach to Counter-Strike can be a joy to watch. If they want to truly be able to hang with the big boys consistently, however, they are going to need to raise their fundamental floor and find some new ways to react in certain disadvantageous situations…

GamerLegion

GamerLegion had a good tournament. That’s the big takeaway for Erik “ztr” Gustafsson’s side after their run at PGL Bucharest 2025. Starting off with a close loss to G2, they bounced back with an absolutely dominant destruction of Falcons (13-2 on Inferno into a 13-1 on Mirage). In Round 3, GamerLegion toppled Legacy in a hard-fought, back-and-forth affair, before comfortably dispatching of Virtus.pro and heading into the quarter-final. Unfortunately for ztr and the boys, Falcons had done some homework after their disastrous second-round loss, and won an exciting quarter-final to knock GamerLegion out of Bucharest.

GamerLegion can leave Bucharest with their heads held high. With Fredrik “REZ” Sterner and co all putting up solid performances, they have built themselves a good platform of confidence with which to operate as they head into the Regional Qualifiers for the BLAST Austin Major.

Aurora

Aurora came into PGL Bucharest 2025 looking to make another deep run. They were amongst the favorites to win the event, and were setting out to prove that the entire roster’s move to a new organization doesn’t change the quality of CS they’re looking to play. For the most part, their run in Bucharest seemed to prove that this was absolutely the case.

Their opening match was a hard-fought victory against an in-form PaiN, winning 2-1. A comfortable second-round victory over Legacy saw the Turkish roster face an always-dangerous 3DMAX in Round Three. Unfortunately for Aurora, they lost the matchup against the French team 1-2, heading into a fourth-round bout with an Apogee hot off back-to-back wins against the MongolZ and Astralis. Despite Apogee’s momentum coming into the game, Aurora played their expected brand of strong, explosive Counter-Strike and won the series 2-0.

Headint into the quarter-final, Aurora faced off against a Complexity in the midst of a fairytale run. Despite being, on paper, the better team, Aurora were defeated in an exciting match-up against the American squad. Whilst Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli’s men would doubtless have wanted to go deeper in Bucharest, they still had a fairly solid showing. As any CS fan knows, this squad can, on their day, beat anyone in front of them.

Virtus.pro

Virtus.pro got off to a pretty rough start at PGL Bucharest 2025 with a dismal performance against Rare Atom. The Chinese team took Mirage 13-3 and Ancient 13-7, leaving the Russian organization shellshocked to start the tournament. However, this surprising drubbing didn’t seem to have a lasting effect, as VP took the fight to a vulnerable Team Liquid (no honeymoon period for Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek) in a convincing 2-0 win. A solid performance against FURIA sent Denis “electroNic” Sharipov’s team into a Round Four match-up with GamerLegion feeling confident. Unfortunately for Virtus.pro, GamerLegion proved to be too strong an opponent, with VP going 7-13 and 8-13 on Ancient and Mirage, respectively.

Bouncing back from their loss to GamerLegion, Virtus.pro knocked Astralis out of contention with a strong showing on both Dust II and Train, which saw them heading into a Quarter Final match against an in-form G2. VP put up a good fight, but G2 ultimately won the day, taking Dust II 13-11 and Mirage 13-9. All in all, it wasn’t a bad showing from the VP boys, but they’ll have to find the next level if they hope to get past the quarter-final in their next event.