Favorites (mostly) come through on day one of PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026

We’ve reached the end of the road of PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 day one, with the favorites heading into the opening matches mostly getting through without an issue. It wasn’t a day completely devoid of unpredictable results though; let’s recap the action!

Underdogs struggle in PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 openers

NAVI and Astralis were up first, the former being the favorite. Astralis has shown a better face since bringing in ryu and phzy, but it was nowhere near enough to be remotely competitive against NAVI here, with the opener being a swift 2:0 featuring star showings from iM and w0nderful. Again, though, another impressive outing for ryu to show he more than belongs at this level.

Elsewhere, FUT took on an Aurora side that has looked rejuvenated since the addition of soulfly. FUT are undoubtedly the best surprise of 2026 so far, this young lineup taking advantage of every chance that comes their way. They were not about to waste that chance here, either, as dziugss and lauNX starred in an impressive 2:1 victory over Aurora. FUT’s climb up the VRS continues, while Aurora’s struggles on every map that isn’t Anubis remains a real concern.

FaZe vs. HEROIC could have been an email. Although FaZe have made a bad habit of losing to worse teams in recent times, HEROIC had very little to offer in this series with AWPer Alkaren still missing with visa issues. This was a simple 2:0 for FaZe, and I’m not sure it tells us all that much about either team.

MOUZ‘s matchup with PARIVISION was undoubtedly one of the more exciting PGL Cluj-Napoca opening matches on paper, and it fully delivered on the server. PARIVISION are still clearly finding their mojo against the very best CS2 teams, but have enough about them to cause a threat to anyone. This series was no exception; PARIVISION won the Dust2 opener convincingly, but experience won the day as MOUZ completed a reverse sweep to ensure a winning start in Cluj-Napoca.

It was also a solid day at the office for Falcons, who easily avoided a banana peel matchup against 3DMAX. This is exactly the type of team Falcons have managed to lose to in recent months, but 3DMAX were powerless to stop a huge NiKo and m0NESY double act from putting a stop to this one in two convincing maps.

On the back of their IEM Krakow win, Vitality kicked off their PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 run looking distinctly mortal against G2. A close Mirage went Vitality’s way, but G2 fought back into it on their opponent’s pick of Inferno. And while Vitality did eventually see out the series on Anubis to keep their winning streak intact, G2 may be a little disappointed they couldn’t take Mirage for themselves and secure a 2:0 win here. Small margins.

We were a little misled by paiN vs. The MongolZ. paiN were able to take the opening map 13:7, offering the illusion of a competitive series. But they were only able to muster a measly three rounds across the next three maps with The MongolZ‘s newbie cobrazera putting up a 25:3 scoreline on the Dust2 decider. This was almost interesting, until it really wasn’t.

The final match to finish was FURIA vs. B8, which again was another example of the importance of experience in Counter-Strike. A 2:0 series flatters FURIA, who were dragged to the very end by B8 on both maps. The young guns just couldn’t keep their composure to see out the series, resulting in a losing start to their PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 journey.