The Swiss stage is done. Eight teams remain. The PGL Bucharest 2026 playoffs begin today, April 9, with four Bo3 quarterfinals that will cut the field in half before sundown. Single elimination. No second chances.

Astralis and FUT blazed through groups at 3-0. The MongolZ, MIBR, and 3DMAX followed at 3-1. PARIVISION, B8, and EYEBALLERS survived the 2-2 bracket yesterday to clinch the final three spots. On the other end: FaZe forfeited their first two matches due to a scheduling conflict with HLC Belgrade, then lost to Inner Circle and exited 0-3 without winning a single map on stage. BC.Game, NRG, and five others joined them on early flights home.

The prize pool sits at $1.25 million, with the winner walking away with $400,000. No Team Vitality, no NaVi, no FURIA in the field. That makes this the most open Tier 1 bracket CS2 has seen all year.

Here’s your PGL Bucharest quarterfinals bracket, match by match.

Today’s schedule (all times CEST):

  • 09:00 — MIBR vs. 3DMAX
  • 12:00 — Astralis vs. EYEBALLERS
  • 15:00 — FUT vs. B8
  • 18:00 — The MongolZ vs. PARIVISION

All matches Bo3. Streams live on PGL’s Twitch, YouTube, and Kick channels.

Astralis vs. EYEBALLERS — 12:00 CEST

This is the marquee mismatch on paper, but the story around it makes it compelling.

Astralis went 3-0 in groups, beating MIBR, B8, and The MongolZ in three consecutive Bo3 series. Every Swiss round at this event was best-of-three, and Astralis never looked in danger of losing one. jabbi has been the best player at the tournament so far with a 1.40 rating across seven maps, and Staehr continues to anchor the rifling alongside newer additions phzy and ryu. Under HooXi‘s calls and coach ruggah, this Astralis lineup looks more cohesive than any iteration since the dev1ce era. Third place at EPL Season 23 was no fluke. This team is trending upward, currently ranked 10th in the world.

On the other side: JW. The 31-year-old AWP IGL and EYEBALLERS founder is playing in a Tier 1 playoff for the first time since cs_summit 7 in January 2021, a gap of over five years. His all-Swedish squad of bobeksde, maxster, Ro1f, and dex took down FOKUS in a tight 2-1 to qualify, with maxster stepping up huge on the Dust2 decider. The fairy-tale narrative is locked. Whether they have the firepower to match Astralis is another question entirely. EYEBALLERS went 3-2 in groups, with their only clean wins coming via FaZe’s forfeit and a 2-0 over NRG.

HLTV community vote: 78.7% for Astralis.

Prediction: Astralis in two. The gap in individual talent is too wide, and jabbi on this form is borderline unplayable.

The MongolZ vs. PARIVISION — 18:00 CEST

Two pre-tournament favorites who both look beatable right now.

The MongolZ finished groups 3-1, with their only loss coming against Astralis. cobrazera is still growing into the roster after replacing controlez in the offseason, and the absence of coach maaRaa at the event has reportedly limited the team’s tactical depth. The raw talent is there with bLitz calling and the core intact, but The MongolZ have looked one-dimensional at times in Bucharest.

PARIVISION entered as the betting favorites for the whole event and nearly went home. Jame‘s team needed five overtimes on Mirage against Wildcard just to survive the 2-2 round, with the map finishing 28-26, the third-longest map in CS2 history. They followed that with a close Nuke win to clinch a 3-2 record. Before Bucharest, PARIVISION’s resume was spotless: first at BLAST Bounty Winter, runners-up at PGL Cluj-Napoca. But the form this week tells a different story. Jame himself admitted post-match that calling has been a challenge at this event.

Prediction: Coin flip. PARIVISION have the higher ceiling, but The MongolZ are better rested and more in rhythm. If Jame’s squad can’t fix their mid-round execution, The MongolZ punish that kind of sloppiness.

MIBR vs. 3DMAX — 09:00 CEST

The day’s opening match, and potentially the closest.

MIBR went 3-1 in groups, with insani performing as the team’s engine. They cleaned up EYEBALLERS and Legacy with efficiency, but their only loss came to 3DMAX in the 2-1 round. The Brazilian-majority roster, currently ranked 42nd in the world, is overperforming expectations at PGL Bucharest 2026. The question is whether they can sustain it in a Bo3 against opponents who already own a blueprint for beating them.

3DMAX hold that blueprint. Also finishing groups 3-1, the French squad took PARIVISION’s lunch money in the 2-1 round with a clinical 2-0. misutaaa has looked revitalized since joining the roster in February. Their aggressive playstyle can blow doors off on a good day. On a bad day, it can self-destruct. That’s 3DMAX in a nutshell.

HLTV community vote has this at 52-48 in favor of 3DMAX. A genuine 50/50.

Prediction: 3DMAX in three. The map pool depth should tilt it, but expect drama.

FUT vs. B8 — 15:00 CEST

Two young rosters with ex-NaVi Junior DNA facing off for a semifinal berth.

FUT went 3-0 in groups alongside Astralis, beating Inner Circle, NRG, and PARIVISION without dropping a series. That PARIVISION win was emphatic: a 2-0 that exposed the favorites’ weaknesses before the rest of the field even got a chance. The roster built around the former NaVi Junior core of dem0n, Krabeni, cmtry, and dziugss, plus Romanian rifler lauNX, has been the breakout story of 2026. Top four at EPL Season 23 confirmed the ceiling is real. Four FUT players sit in the tournament’s top six by rating heading into playoffs, according to Pley.gg’s stats tracker.

B8 scraped through at 3-2, beating Legacy 2-0 and Inner Circle 2-0 to qualify. The Ukrainian squad showed flashes: esenthial, s1zzi, kenzisor, and npl all posted near-identical kill counts in their Legacy win, suggesting the team’s firepower is real but inconsistent. 16-year-old AWPer s1zzi is the player to watch.

Prediction: FUT in two. The quality gap showed in groups, and FUT’s form across the entire Swiss stage suggests they’re peaking at the right time.

Playoffs Road Map

  • April 9 (today) — All four quarterfinals, Bo3. Schedule above.
  • April 10 — Semifinals, Bo3. Winners of QF1 and QF2 face off; winners of QF3 and QF4 meet on the other side.
  • April 11 — Third-place decider (Bo3) and Grand Final (Bo5).

All matches from PGL Studios, Bucharest. IEM Rio 2026 starts just two days after the Grand Final, on April 13, so squads eliminated here have virtually zero recovery time before the next Tier 1 event.

Stay locked to FragWire for live updates as every series unfolds.