After a long Swiss group stage and knockouts, the PGL Masters Bucharest 2025 grand finals are right upon us: Aurora and Legacy will play a best-of-five to decide who takes the trophy and $400,000 home.
Will the Brazilians of Legacy follow their title run at the CS Asia Championships (CAC) 2025 with another trophy? Or will Aurora put their slump to bed and lift a trophy before the StarLadder Budapest Major?
Here’s what to expect of Aurora vs. Legacy on November 1st.
| Match | Aurora vs. Legacy – PGL Masters Bucharest 2025 grand finals |
|---|---|
| Kick-off | November 1st, 2025, at 8 a.m. ET / 1 p.m. CET |
| Top pick | Legacy to win 3-2 |
| Betting favorite | Aurora |
Even though best-of-five matches in CS2 typically favor the favorite, in this case, Aurora, the Turkish team struggled to qualify for the playoffs more than Legacy did. They’re favorites because they played better throughout the year, but Legacy are peaking at the end of the season.
Earlier in the tournament, Aurora’s captain Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli asked fans to support them instead of being negative, because the team are going through their worst period in two years. This gives one more motive to bet on Legacy, especially because they won the Brazilian derby versus paiN Gaming in the quarterfinals, and their confidence is higher than ever.
Odds subject to change.
Even XANTARES, Aurora’s superstar, is having some bad maps as of late. Credit: Michal Konkol | © BLAST
Aurora had a rough run in the Swiss group stage of PGL Masters Bucharest, more than Legacy did. The Turkish team were 2-0 up after beating Fnatic and Team Liquid, but losses to HEROIC and SAW led MAJ3R to admit that they’re in a slump.
They also dropped a map to Astralis, who had their coach playing in place of the star AWPer Nicolai “device” Reedtz, but ended up reaching the playoffs. Aurora defeated B8 by 2-1 in the quarterfinals and breezed past GamerLegion in the semifinals, only conceding two rounds across the two maps played.
Aurora have been a playoff merchant and a title contender for the majority of the year. However, their form took a turn for the worse since the BLAST.tv Austin Major, the first tournament in which they didn’t reach the playoffs in 2025.
The Turkish squad bounced back afterward, as they made playoffs at BLAST Bounty Season 2, Esports World Cup 2025, and FISSURE Playground 2. But, they’ve been playing awful throughout all of October, and their confidence seemingly reached an all-time low before they recovered some during the PGL Masters Bucharest playoffs.
Legacy’s captain lux has won 10 clutches for Legacy in PGL Masters Bucharest so far. Credit: Stephanie Lindgren | © BLAST
Legacy defeated Gentle Mates, Astralis, and FlyQuest to qualify for the playoffs. They also lost to Team Liquid and B8 in the Swiss group stage, so they advanced with a 3-2 record.
As for the playoffs, Legacy took down both paiN Gaming and SAW by 2-1. In both these knockout matches, Legacy won the third and decisive map comfortably, which shows that the Brazilians have gained momentum throughout the series.
Legacy showed everyone at the BLAST.tv Austin Major in June, that they shoot hard, as they nearly reached the playoffs despite starting the tournament in the first Swiss stage out of three. And now that Legacy are reaching their peak form at the end of the season and won CAC 2025, they truly believe in their potential as contenders.
Latto recently won the MVP award of CAC 2025. Can he help Legacy win PGL Masters Bucharest and win his second MVP? Credit: © PGL
Both Turkey and Brazil are known as passionate countries in CS2. Not only because their fans are so loyal and emotive, but also because their players more often than not play with their hearts instead of their brains.
Aurora and Legacy are teams that are not afraid to play fast, very explosively, or straight up go for gunfights and try to get an opening kill quickly. This is the type of Counter-Strike they play, and the one that suits them the best.
Aurora MAJ3r, on a good day, can outcall any in-game leader in the world. However, there’s a key difference between him and Lucas “lux” Meneghini at the moment. The Legacy IGL is playing much better individually, and so well that he’s won 10 clutches throughout PGL Masters Bucharest, more than anyone else but his teammate Vinicius “n1ssim” Pereira, who also won 10 clutches.
Besides lux and n1ssim, saadzin has been pretty reliable on clutches too, having won nine in total. So, thus far, Legacy have been better than Aurora in do-or-die situations, and trust me, there will be plenty of those situations in the best-of-five grand finals of PGL Masters Bucharest.
Even though Aurora have been a better team than Legacy throughout most of the season, the momentum is all in Legacy’s favor. In my opinion, it would be unwise to bet against Legacy at the moment.
| Market | Odds |
|---|---|
| Aurora to win | 1.58 |
| Legacy to win | 2.33 |
| Over 4.5 maps | 2.43 |
| Under 4.5 maps | 1.50 |
Odds subject to change.
In summary, these are my Aurora vs. Legacy picks:
Feature image credit: © PGL
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