With head coach zhokiNg standing in for the sick Jee, TYLOO lost their own Inferno pick, then took Nuke 13-5 and Mirage 13-7 to make 9z the first team out of PGL Masters Bucharest. The win lifts their chances of a Major invitation to 91%.
Nothing about Monday’s elimination match favoured TYLOO. Their AWPer Jee had been ruled out with chickenpox that morning, 9z had won six of the seven maps between the teams since June, and the bookmakers had the South Americans as heavy favourites. Three maps later, 9z were out of the tournament with three defeats from three.
TYLOO2-1
9zStatsInferno 11-13, Nuke 13-5, Mirage 13-7
| TYLOO | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Moseyuh | 51-33 | +18 | 76.3 | 85.5% |
| Zero | 54-39 | +15 | 89.1 | 79.0% |
| JamYoung | 40-31 | +9 | 77.2 | 77.4% |
| Mercury | 40-39 | +1 | 73.7 | 75.8% |
| zhokiNg | 30-44 | -14 | 57.3 | 62.9% |
| 9z | K-D | +/- | ADR | KAST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 meyern | 40-39 | +1 | 68.8 | 71.0% |
 dgt | 35-38 | -3 | 61.8 | 71.0% |
 HUASOPEEK | 42-46 | -4 | 75.6 | 71.0% |
| max | 32-44 | -12 | 60.6 | 69.4% |
| luchov | 34-49 | -15 | 65.0 | 66.1% |
A coach learning on the job
zhokiNg, 32, had not played an official match since he last filled in for Jee at FISSURE Playground #1 in July 2025. His numbers were the weakest on the server, 30 kills to 44 deaths, and Inferno was hard going. He was the first TYLOO player to meet 9z’s defenders on Banana and was 1-7 at one stage of the map.
As the series went on, TYLOO found a better use for him. On Mirage he went into fights first so that the riflers behind him could trade, and the plan paid off in the last round of the first half. Left in a two-on-two, zhokiNg pre-fired HUASOPEEK and left him low enough for Moseyuh to finish the job and level the map at 6-6. He ended Mirage with 12 kills, more than max (6) or dgt (8), and his four kills on Nuke were one more than 9z’s AWPer meyern managed there.
TYLOO’s answer to losing their AWPer was to more or less do without the weapon. On Mirage they picked up the AWP 9z had dropped and threw it away rather than use it. What they had instead was aim and a fast, aggressive rifle game through the middle of the map, and three players carried it:
- Moseyuh had the best kill difference on the server at 51-33 and was 22-13 on Inferno, the map TYLOO lost.
- Zero finished with 54 kills and dominated Nuke, going 19-9 with 110.1 ADR.
- JamYoung took over on Mirage with 17 kills, 10 deaths and 96.8 ADR, and ended the series with a double kill on the defence of the final round.
Eleven rounds in a row on Mirage
9z had their chances. On Inferno, TYLOO’s own pick, meyern opened with a Dual Berettas ace in the pistol round, every kill a headshot and without a single reload, and 9z led 9-3 at the half. They still nearly lost it. TYLOO pulled back to 12-11 after 9z left the bomb behind in CT spawn during a four-on-two, and only a final round won against four defenders stacked on B closed the map 13-11.
Nuke was 9z’s pick, and TYLOO had lost all four of their Nuke maps over the past three months, including Saturday’s collapse from 6-1 against FUT Esports. This time their CT side gave 9z three rounds in the first half, and TYLOO won the second pistol round on their way to 13-5.
Mirage looked like 9z’s way back. They won the pistol round, HUASOPEEK took four kills in a single round on his way to 100.4 ADR on the map, and the scoreboard read 6-1. TYLOO then won eleven rounds in a row, the last five of the half and the first six after the switch, and 9z’s T side found only one more round before JamYoung closed it out. The last time TYLOO had beaten 9z on a map, in Guangzhou in July, it was also Mirage 13-7.
9z go home from Bucharest without a win
9z’s attack was the problem all day. Across the three maps they won 8 of their 32 rounds on the T side: four on Inferno, three on Nuke and one on Mirage. meyern was the only player on the team with more kills than deaths, max had 6 kills and 35.8 ADR on Mirage, and luchov finished 34-49.
It is a fifth straight series defeat for 9z after losses to Falcons and Aurora before the event and to Vitality and MOUZ in the first two Swiss rounds. Their place at the Major was never in question this week, and the 23 points they lose in Valve’s Regional Standings leave them 17th.
Two more wins for the playoffs, and a better road to Singapore
TYLOO go to one win and two losses and need victories in both of their remaining Swiss rounds to reach the quarter-finals. The bigger prize is now within reach. By HLTV’s count, the series is worth 69 points in Valve’s Regional Standings and lifts TYLOO from 62nd to 48th, and its simulation now puts their chance of a Major invitation at 91%, up from 52% before the match.
Asia has five places in Singapore, and Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Spirit had left TYLOO’s hold on one of them loose. Valve takes its snapshot of the standings on 2 November. Before that, TYLOO play the rest of this event with zhokiNg and travel to HyperX Retake Season 13 in Lisbon, which starts on Thursday, with Jee’s recovery still the open question.
Results, the Swiss table and the next pairings are on our PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 page.
