Esports tournament organiser PGL has announced that its Belgrade event, set to take place in October 2026, has been relocated to Bucharest and renamed to PGL Masters Bucharest.
The event, originally scheduled for October 27th to November 1st, 2026, will now take place between October 24th and 31st.
Announced on December 22nd, 2025, 12 teams from the top of July’s Valve Regional Standings (VRS) will receive an invitation to compete at the Tier 1 event. Four invites will go to Europe and the Americas, with two assigned for each Asian sub-region. While invites are determined by July 2026’s VRS, the seeding for the event will be decided using October’s standings.
In addition to the invites, PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 will feature open and closed qualifiers. The open qualifiers will take place from September 3rd to 6th, with the closed qualifiers taking place three days later, from September 9th to 13th.
The tournament is no stranger to hosting events in the Romanian capital. In November 2024, it hosted the first edition of PGL Masters Bucharest, with Aurora Gaming emerging victorious.
This also isn’t the first case of PGL adjusting its 2026 Counter-Strike 2 tournament calendar. In November, the tournament organiser revealed several updates to the calendar to avoid overlaps with other tournaments.
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 features a best-of-three Swiss stage and a best-of-three single-elimination playoff bracket. The Grand Final will be contested using a best-of-five series, following a similar format to the StarLadder Budapest Major.
PGL CS2 In 2026
Following a successful year of hosting several high-profile events, PGL is set to continue its support for Counter-Strike esports over the next 12 months with another extensive slate of tournaments.
In addition to its October event, PGL will host three Tier 1 events between February and May, before ending the year hosting a Major in Singapore.
Outside of Counter-Strike, the company has joined forces with Secretlab for the 2026 season, with the gaming furniture manufacturer providing on-stage and practice setups across all PGL Counter-Strike and Dota 2 tournaments.
