Official announcement: The 2026 PGL Masters will be moved from Belgrade to Bucharest.

PGL officially announced on Monday that the PGL Masters Tournament, originally scheduled for October 22 to November 1, 2026, will undergo a major adjustment: the tournament will be moved from the stadium in Belgrade, Serbia to the PGL Studio in Bucharest, Romania, and renamed the PGL Bucharest Masters Tournament.

This adjustment continues PGL's practice of moving its events, originally scheduled to be held in Belgrade, to Bucharest. PGL has also slightly adjusted its schedule, setting the main event dates for October 24-31, 2026.

According to the official schedule, a total of 16 teams will participate in this tournament: 12 teams will be invited to qualify based on the global VRS rankings on July 6, 2026, while the remaining 4 spots will be determined through qualifiers in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

For the qualifiers, South America, North America, and Europe will each have two open qualifiers, with the top two teams from each region advancing to the closed qualifiers. The closed qualifiers will also invite four additional teams based on their VRS rankings, with the final winners securing a spot in the main tournament.

The Asian qualifiers are divided into several sub-regions to determine the final participating team.

All qualifying rounds will be held online. The open qualifying rounds will be held from September 3 to 6, while the closed qualifying rounds will be held from September 9 to 13.

In the main tournament, the group stage will use a Swiss-system format, with each match being a best-of-three (BO3). The knockout stage will use a single-elimination format, culminating in a best-of-five (BO5) final to determine the champion. The total prize pool for this event is a whopping $1.25 million.