After five grueling days of Counter-Strike action, the PGL Bucharest 2026 Swiss Stage has come to a close, leaving only eight teams remaining in the tournament. With the likes of Team Vitality, Team Falcons, and Team Spirit out of the picture, we had the opportunity to see fresh faces qualify for the playoffs, including one of Counter-Strike’s legends making a return.
JW is a familiar name if you’ve played Counter-Strike in the 2010s. The two-time Major winner left Fnatic to start his own team – EYEBALLERS. Though JW had been playing in the Tier 3 scene since the team’s inception in 2022, he finally took his young team to qualify for a big event like PGL Bucharest 2026.
Image via PGL
And EYEBALLERS didn’t just qualify. They took down FOKUS and NRG to earn a spot in the playoffs. The Swedish squad did start the event with a free win, though, as FaZe Clan were forced to forfeit the first match since they were competing in HLC Belgrade 2026 in an attempt to secure their Major spot.
Still, what’s impressive is that EYEBALLERS were also playing in two tournaments at the same time. Aside from PGL Bucharest, they also played matches in CCT Season 3 Europe Series 20, which is an online tournament.
Though EYEBALLERS are by no means favorites to win PGL Bucharest, it’s always nice to see JW making a return to top competition and finding some success.
The two teams that went 3-0 in the Swiss Stage were Astralis and FUT Esports, which are squads heavily motivated to prove themselves. Both teams always manage to put up a good fight against the best CS2 teams in the world like Team Spirit and NAVI, but often fail to get the job done.
Now that the top five teams in the world aren’t here, there aren’t many candidates who can stop them. FUT were able to stun the tournament favorites PARIVISION in 2-0 fashion to secure their spot in the playoffs. Astralis are no slouches either, taking down TheMongolZ with a 2-0 scoreline as well.
Image via PGL
Judging by how the PGL Bucharest playoffs bracket is shaping up, we could very well see one of these two teams in the grand final, with our main candidate being Astralis.
PARIVISION and TheMongolZ were the two favorites coming into this event. They were the two top ten teams in the world who decided to participate, so it’s only natural we label them as the best teams here.
However, things weren’t smooth sailing for both teams in the Swiss Stage, as both teams dropped maps to weaker opposition. This resulted in PARIVISION and TheMongolZ getting matched against each other in the quarterfinals, which is way earlier than they’d like. Think of this matchup as the early grand final.
Image via PGL
We believe the winner of this matchup has the best shot at winning the entire event. So, even though it’s only labeled as a quarterfinal matchup, there’s much more on the line than you’d normally think.
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