PGL Bucharest 2025 started with a lot of surprises.
Six of the eight matches that were played in round 1 of the group stage ended with the victory of the underdog. That’s an extremely rare event. Here’s what happened.
G2 Esports vs. GamerLegion: 2 – 0
G2 struggled a bit against GL but thanks to Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov’s excellent performance, they prevailed in the end.
Aurora Gaming vs. paiN Gaming: 2 – 1
Aurora and paiN had an intense match that ended up requiring three maps, two of which ended after overtime.
FURIA vs. Betclic Apogee Esports: 2 – 0
FURIA showed the newcomers from Apogee Esports what top CS looks like. This was a quick 2 – 0.
3DMAX vs. The MongolZ: 2 – 1
3DMAX looked strong even before the start of PGL Bucharest 2025 but nobody expected them to beat one of the best teams in CS2. All three maps were highly disputed: 11 – 13 on Ancient, 13 – 10 on Inferno, and 13 – 10 on Anubis.
Astralis vs. FaZe Clan: 2 – 1
Astralis seem to have finally fixed their major problems. This victory against FaZe is very encouraging but they must be careful not to waste it in the upcoming rounds.
Complexity vs. Team Falcons: 2 – 0
Team Falcons looked terrible against Complexity and it’s not clear why. We all expected them to play much better than they did at ESL Pro League S21 and BLAST Open Spring 2025. But the exact opposite happened.
Legacy vs. Team Liquid: 2 – 0
Despite being ranked just 52nd globally, Legacy destroyed Liquid in this match. Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer and Lucas “lux” Meneghini played spectacularly well.
Rare Atom vs. Virtus.pro: 2 – 0
Under the leadership of Cai “Summer” Yulun, Rare Atom mopped the floor with VP, beating them 13 – 3 on Mirage and 13 – 7 on Ancient. The Asian roster could go on to achieve great things at this event.
