PGL has come under criticism after revising its list of teams for the European, North American, and South American closed qualifiers for PGL Bucharest, leading to ESC, Fire Flux, FAVBET, and Chimera losing their previously granted invitations.
The Romanian tournament organizer admitted to an error in its initial invitation process, explaining that adjustments were made to align more closely with Valve’s Tournament Operation Requirements. This oversight resulted in a one-week delay in the European and South American qualifiers and a complete reset of the invitation process.
Initially, the closed qualifier invitations were determined in early February before all 12 direct VRS slots for the main event were finalized. However, this conflicted with Valve’s invitation rules, which state that the main event’s final roster should be decided before allocating qualifying spots. By pre-determining some qualifier participants, PGL risked having too many or too few invites depending on how many teams ultimately accepted a place in the main tournament.
Following the delay, PGL restarted the invitation process from scratch, allowing teams that had previously declined an invite a chance to reconsider. This led to HEROIC, Nexus, Nemiga, and BC.Game accepting spots in the European closed qualifier, which in turn pushed ESC, Fire Flux, FAVBET, and Chimera below the cut-off.
While Chimera and FAVBET attempted to qualify through open qualifiers, ESC and Fire Flux opted out of that opportunity, as they had initially secured a closed qualifier invite. Their exclusion from the tournament has left them frustrated, as they were ultimately denied a chance to compete due to the unexpected restructuring of the invitation process.
PGL publicly acknowledged its mistake and issued an apology, admitting to a “major oversight” that necessitated restarting the qualification process. The organization stated that the original timeline for 12 direct invites was too long, with a deadline stretching over a month, while the closed qualifiers were scheduled too close to this deadline—just a day apart. This misalignment resulted in early invitations being sent out prematurely, forcing the tournament organizer to restart the process with shorter deadlines.
By the time the second round of invitations was issued, some of the teams that had initially declined their invitations reversed their decisions, which caused certain teams that were originally included in the closed qualifier to be left out.
The decision sparked criticism from affected players, with Fire Flux’s Robin “ScrunK” Röpke taking to X to voice his frustration, questioning how a tournament organizer could invite teams, then delay the event, only to revoke those invitations after reworking the process. ESC’s Bartek “mASKED” Trybuła echoed similar sentiments, expressing disbelief at how the situation unfolded and how his team missed out on the open qualifier as a result.
Despite the backlash, PGL maintains that the reset was necessary to ensure a fair and consistent qualification process moving forward. The organization reaffirmed its commitment to improving event operations in future tournaments.
The North American closed qualifier commenced on March 5, with the European and South American closed qualifiers set to follow on March 7. Each region will have one final qualifying spot available at PGL Bucharest, with 32 teams competing in each qualifier for a coveted spot at the main event.
