Statistical Overview of PGL Masters Bucharest 2026: Favorites by the Numbers

Five teams from the top of the VRS rankings will compete at the PGL Masters Bucharest 2026, but there are also some interesting stats for the less prominent participants. We break down the teams’ form ahead of the October 24 kickoff: from The MongolZ’s title defense and 9z Team’s struggles to Nemiga Gaming’s strong map performance and DENDELE’s results.

Team Spirit, Team Vitality, FURIA, MOUZ, and Aurora Gaming occupy the top five spots in the rankings. With this field of participants, making it to the top eight will already be a significant achievement for teams from the lower half of the seedings. To advance from the Swiss stage, teams need three wins in best-of-3 series. Therefore, when evaluating the participants, it’s not just their rankings that matter, but also their results in recent series, the players’ form, and their map pool.

In the VRS world rankings ahead of the tournament, Natus Vincere is ranked 33rd, Team Liquid is 24th, and G2 Esports is ninth. As things stand, NAVI trails most of the other teams, despite the club’s high profile. Liquid secured its spot through the North American qualifier, defeating NRG Esports 3–2 in the final. In the first round, NAVI will face G2, and Liquid will face MOUZ: in both matchups, the difference between the opponents’ VRS rankings exceeds twenty positions. The statistics in this article are current as of the morning of October 24, prior to the tournament’s first matches.

TYLOO has a notable individual performance: rifler “JamYoung” Yang has posted a 1.27 rating across 30 maps over the past three months. However, at ESL Pro League Season 24, the Chinese squad lost all three series and won only one map out of seven. Their 3-0 victory over DEPO in the final of the PGL Asian qualifiers does not resolve this contradiction: JamYoung’s performance has yet to be sufficient against stronger opponents. On Mirage, TYLOO’s core has six wins in nine games over three months; on Nuke, not a single win in three. Therefore, map selection here is just as important as the leader’s form.

For TYLOO’s first opponent, FUT Esports, the main concern is their long hiatus. FUT’s last official match took place on August 31—54 days before the start of the tournament in Bucharest. During that time, sniper Álvaro “SunPayus” García joined the roster; for him, the PGL will be his first tournament with his new club. A second-place finish at the 2026 Esports World Cup and victories over MOUZ and FURIA demonstrate the potential of the previous five-man lineup, but it’s too early to extrapolate that to the revamped roster. Their four wins in four games on Mirage also date back to before the roster change, so the new lineup’s potential will have to be assessed in Bucharest.

The MongolZ has a more recent benchmark heading into Bucharest: on October 22, the team won the 1win Private Club Season 2. The final against PARIVISION ended with a score of 3-0, with a total round count of 39-21. The last four series at this LAN tournament resulted in nine maps won and only one lost: The MongolZ defeated four opponents in a row. Sniper Usukhbayar “910” Banzragch has a 1.23 rating across 35 maps over three months—yet another reason to take a closer look at this roster.

That said, there may not be a favorable map in their opening match against Aurora. Over the past three months, The MongolZ’s core lineup has secured five wins in six games on Ancient and four in five on Dust2; however, Aurora bans Ancient as their first pick in 85% of cases. This is more important than a good win percentage on its own: they still need to secure a strong map in the series. On Mirage, The MongolZ has five wins in eight games, so if Ancient is banned, they’ll still have another option with a positive record.

In October, 9z Team already secured victories over BetBoom Team at ESL Pro League Season 24 and over Aurora at the Thunderpick World Championship 2026. However, both tournaments ended before the playoffs: their series records were 2–3 and 1–2, respectively. At Thunderpick, after an initial 2-0 lead against Aurora, the team lost to Team Falcons and then fell to Aurora in the decisive group stage match. 9z already has victories over strong opponents, but in October, those wins weren’t enough to advance from the group stage.

A good example is Nuke: over the past three months, 9z has three wins in ten games, although one of those was a 13-1 rout of Aurora. One standout result here is noticeably better than the overall picture, so it’s risky to draw conclusions about this being a reliable map based on that alone. The opening match against Vitality presents an opportunity to make a substitution: Justinas “jL” Lekavičius will play in place of Dan “apEX” Madeskler. However, a potential victory over Vitality would only account for one of the three wins they need: to advance to the playoffs, 9z will need to perform more consistently in their upcoming series.

The Thunderpick final made BetBoom one of the most notable contenders for the upcoming PGL, although the map record in Malta remained even at 8–8. After losing to FURIA in the opening match, BetBoom won three series in a row with a score of 2-1, but lost 2-3 in the final. All three victories were secured on decisive maps, which allowed them to reach the final with an even overall map count. In the first round, BetBoom will face Spirit, which ranks third in the global VRS.

Legacy, playing on Thunderpick, also finished with an even map record—4-4—but won only one series out of three. Their victory over PARIVISION was followed by two 1-2 losses, including a playoff match against BetBoom. The difference between reaching the finals and being eliminated from the group stage largely came down to the deciding maps. In Bucharest, Legacy will open against Nemiga Gaming. After two losses on the third maps, it will be interesting to see if the roster can close out close matches more effectively.

Nemiga Gaming advanced through the European qualifiers with four series wins and a 9-1 map record, and defeated B8 Esports 3-0 in the final. Their strength heading into PGL lies in map selection: over the past three months, the core roster has 12 wins in 15 games on Anubis, 14 in 18 on Mirage, and 16 in 25 on Ancient. However, at LAN events against stronger opponents, their high win rate wasn’t enough to secure a series victory. In the Stake Ranked Episode 4 final against Astralis, Nemiga lost 1–3 and won a total of only 18 rounds across the three maps they dropped. Against Legacy, this map set will face a new test: their seventh-place finish in the VRS is significantly higher than Nemiga’s 21st-place ranking.

DENDELE CS won the South American qualifier with a 9–2 map record, including a 3–1 victory over Fluxo in the final. Rifleman Danilo “doc” Barros has a rating of 1.24 across 54 maps over three months, and in July, DENDELE already defeated FURIA 2-1 in an online match at BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2. This makes the opening matchup more intriguing than the gap between fourth and 42nd place in the VRS would suggest. On Cache, DENDELE’s core lineup has eight wins in 13 games; in their July matchup against FURIA, the team won the decisive map 16–14. But FURIA is coming off a title on Thunderpick, and repeating that result will require a full-fledged series at the same level—not just a single strong performance from doc.