PGL Belgrade moved to Bucharest (again)

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 22/12/2025

PGL have announced that their PGL Belgrade 2026 event has been replaced by PGL Masters Bucharest 2026.

The move once again deprives the Serbian audience of a home event, following the same decision from PGL in 2025.

PGL’s decision to move the event is yet another change to their disrupted Tier 1 calendar, which has seen several events altered or cancelled since their re-entry into Tier 1 Counter-Strike.

PGL Belgrade cancelled yet again

Like the cancelled Belgrade event, PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 remains a 16-team tournament, with 12 teams invited based on VRS and four teams making it to the event through regional qualifiers.

However, instead of being played in front of an 18,000-capacity Belgrade Arena, PGL Masters Bucharest will be a studio LAN.

The decision to move the event away from Belgrade has also coincided with the decision to end the event two days earlier, on October 31.

The event will now take place from October 24th to October 31st, altered from October 22 to November 2, shortening the event to only one week.

That change will theoretically allow teams to arrive for IEM China 2026, scheduled November 2-8. Despite the change, the schedule would still be highly gruelling for the teams intending to attend both events.

The move is yet another concession made by PGL to alter their schedule to accommodate attending teams.

PGL’s re-entry to running a Tier 1 CS has been highly disrupted by rival events, which have deprived PGL of its preferred team lineups.

PGL’s 2026 calendar had already been altered multiple times prior to this announcement, first with the removal of an event planned for August due to clashes with the Esports World Cup.

The tournament organiser then removed an early-October event from its schedule following the announcement of ESL Pro League 24.

When providing the update, PGL stated the following:

“The CS2 event initially scheduled for early October 2026 will no longer take place due to a full overlap with another organizer’s tournament, despite PGL having announced its calendar as early as March 2024.
PGL will continue to prioritize competitive integrity, global scheduling balance, and logistical feasibility for teams and players.”

PGL’s adherence to Valve’s Tournament Operation Requirements, requiring 2026 tournaments to be announced no later than January 1 2025, has not been a rewarding one.

The tournament organiser has consistently announced their tournaments early, only to announce changes later due to rival TOs clashing with PGL’s plans.

The news was perhaps most starkly shown in PGL’s announcement of PGL Kraków 2027. Mere hours later, the event was cancelled following news that a rival TO would host an event there.

We now know the event to be IEM Krakow, which will take place in Kraków from at least 2026-2028.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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