NAVI took the map Vitality almost never lose, but ZywOo on Mirage and ropz on Dust2 turned the series back around.
Team Vitality are in the semi-finals of PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 after a 2-1 win over NAVI on Thursday afternoon. NAVI took their own Cache pick 13-5, Vitality answered 13-9 on Mirage and closed the series 13-6 on Dust2. NAVI go home in fifth to eighth place.
It is Vitality’s third series win over NAVI this month, after a 2-1 at ESL Pro League Season 24 on 4 October and the 2-0 in the Swiss stage on Tuesday. This one started very differently.
Vitality2-1
NAVIStatsCache 5-13, Mirage 13-9, Dust2 13-6
makazze
Thirteen rounds out of fourteen
In the Swiss meeting, NAVI had removed Cache. This time they removed Inferno and picked Cache, the map on which Vitality had lost only once since it returned to the pool, an overtime defeat in August. Vitality did not see it coming. “Maybe we thought they were going to go somewhere else, and they picked Cache,” William “mezii” Merriman said in the post-match interview. “I think overall they had a really good plan.”
For four rounds it looked like the usual story. Vitality won all four on the CT side, then lost a couple of rounds without building their economy, and never recovered. NAVI won 13 of the last 14 rounds: 7-1 to reach 7-5 at the break, then all six on Vitality’s T side. The analysts on PGL’s desk pointed to rounds five and 15, the same flash and peek at B: it cost ropz his life when Vitality tried it, and won makazze a double kill when NAVI did.
Four NAVI players did the shooting. makazze finished the map 18-11 with 97.4 ADR, b1t went 15-8, and iM, playing a playoff match in his home country, was 16-11. Aleksib had three kills and 26.6 ADR, two of the kills with an MP9 against pistols, and still called a 13-5 win. On the other side, ZywOo was held to 8-14 and ropz to 6-11 with 35.2 ADR.
ZywOo on Mirage
Vitality’s answer was Mirage, a map NAVI had struggled on for months, and even that was close for a long time. jL, still standing in for apEX, won a 1v2 in round seven to stop NAVI pulling away, NAVI won the next one with an aggressive push up ramp that caught Vitality’s bomb, and mezii won a 1v1 against b1t late in the half before Vitality levelled at 6-6.
The second half belonged to ZywOo. He opened it with three kills at B in the pistol round, added another multi-kill in the first gun round, and Vitality were 10-6 up before NAVI found two rounds in a row. At 10-8, with NAVI fully bought against a Vitality save, a smoke for window landed short. ZywOo, holding the only gun Vitality had saved, an AWP, took three kills and the round. NAVI won just one more. The Frenchman finished Mirage 24-16 with 118.2 ADR.
mezii, who has called for Vitality since apEX went home for the birth of his child, said he had not lost faith after the Cache T side.
Even now, if you look at a lot of teams, T sides overall, even with their IGLs, it’s really tough at the moment. […] So we just try and fight for as many as we can and then CT side, let the guys have some fun and show their individual skill.
ropz arrives on Dust2
That is roughly how the decider went. Vitality started on the CT side, and when NAVI did win a round, it rarely hurt; in the rounds they lost in the first half they never got more than two kills, and Vitality’s economy held throughout. It was 8-4 at the break.
ropz, so quiet on the first two maps, came alive with 17-10 and 87.1 ADR, and flameZ added 18-9 with 91.5 ADR. NAVI won the second pistol round, but ZywOo took the next one almost on his own with a scout on an eco, including a headshot through a wall, and the gap was never in danger again. iM’s ace in a 1v2 at 12-5, in front of a home crowd, only delayed the end, and a mezii triple closed it a round later.
NAVI’s AWPer, w0nderful, finished Dust2 6-14 with 47.9 ADR. b1t was NAVI’s best player over the series at 43-37, and Aleksib finished 22-41.
Nemiga next, still without apEX
Vitality have reached the last four in Bucharest without apEX, and the club marked it with a “keep chilling” message to their absent captain. The semi-final place is worth at least $87,500 including the club share. Their opponent is Nemiga, who beat FUT 2-0 in the morning, on .
mezii was not dismissing them. “They’re really strong individually […] They’re not scared to make moves,” he said.
For NAVI, the Cache win and Wednesday’s elimination of Spirit suggest a team that can still beat anyone on a given map, but their T sides let them down again: three rounds on Mirage, four on Dust2. They leave with $50,000 including the club share. A win would have taken them to ninth in the VRS on HLTV’s forecast; instead the forecast keeps them 11th, with their place at the Singapore Major already settled. The full bracket is on our PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 page.
