Team Liquid crash out of PGL Masters Bucharest after 26-3 stomp

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 31/10/2025

Team Liquid’s Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) team has crashed out of the PGL Masters Bucharest after two nightmare maps vs SAW.

Team Liquid, 11th in the Valve global ranking (VRS), took an early lead after winning comfortably 13-4 on Ancient.

However, 19th-ranked SAW then dominated the next two maps with a combined score of 26-3 to advance to the semi-finals.

The Portuguese squad recovered remarkably, winning 13-2 on train and then 13-1 on Inferno to take the series 2-1.

The tournament has humbled a few CS2 teams now, as 3DMAX were eliminated from PGL Masters Bucharest by a weakened Astralis.

Team Liquid’s map pool issues cost them dearly.

SAW banned their opponent’s favoured map in Mirage and then selected Train, a map that has regularly caused Liquid issues.

Liquid’s play was disappointing. However, that shouldn’t take away from SAW’s great performances and solid individual showings.

Liquid looked to be in good form as an impressive 2v5 clutch by Roland ‘ultimate⁠’ Tomkowiak helped the team’s one-sided win on map one.

However, in the next game, Team Liquid had no answers to SAW’s strong offensive play, especially their excellent trading.

Then, SAW continued their momentum with a superb defensive half and a great showing from João ‘story⁠’ Vieira on Inferno as they only gave up one round to Team Liquid.

This victory has set up an exciting semi-final at PGL Masters Bucharest, as SAW will take on Legacy next.

Legacy came out on top in a close, all-Brazilian quarter-final, defeating paiN Gaming 2-1.

It was a chaotic and messy bout full of force-buy wins, as clutches and double-man advantages were thrown away.

Legacy had to suffer through losing 11 consecutive rounds combined between their Dust2 defeat and 0-5 start to Nuke.

However, after winning Inferno 13-7 and the 13-10 Dust2 loss, Legacy bounced back on Nuke to win 13-7.

SAW bounce back from CS2 Major disappointment

SAW continue to rock the boat as they are recovering well from the disappointment of missing out on a place at the Starladder Budapest major.

The Portuguese squad had a huge opportunity but missed out on the CS2 Major after their elimination from the Fragadelphia Blocktober quarter-finals.

Fragadelphia Blocktober and the major spot was eventually won by Fnatic, who have controversially benched UK star Cai ‘CYPHER’ Watson since then.

But fast-forward to Romania, and SAW keep surprising teams.

At PGL Masters Bucharest, they have taken out multiple Major-qualified teams in Aurora, GamerLegion and now Team Liquid.

SAW are ending the year on a high and could be a team to watch in 2026.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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