NRG and M80 claim spots at PGL Bucharest as seven top teams skip Romanian tournament

PGL have announced the invites for PGL Bucharest 2026, seeing M80 and NRG claim spots at the Romanian LAN while a number of top ten squads have opted out of the $1.25m event. Seven top ten squads on the February VRS declined invites including FURIA, Vitality, Falcons, and NAVI.

As first pointed out by HLTV, top teams appear to be skipping PGL's offering due to its close proximity to IEM Rio 2026, with the Brazilian LAN starting just two days after PGL Bucharest wraps up on April 11th. Teams favoring ESL's tournament offering continues something for a tit-for-tat with PGL that has been going on since 2025, with its most recent chapter seeing the majority of top teams favor PGL Astana over IEM Atlanta.

While the prestige of PGL Bucharest is undoubtedly affected by the lack of top squads, it certainly helps NA teams as NRG and M80 claimed invites while one more NA sqauad will join them via the Closed Qualifier.

The team list for PGL Bucharest 2026 currently consists of: