HEROIC and BetBoom suffer shock exits in PGL Bucharest qualifier semis

An unlikely best-of-five final between OG and Apogee will decide who heads to Romania.

The PGL Bucharest Europe qualifier has reached its grand final, where a best-of-five battle scheduled for Wednesday at 16:00 will decide who earns the sole spot on offer at the Romanian event.

It'll be an unexpected showdown between OG and Betclic after the teams eliminated the two remaining favorites, HEROIC and BetBoom, in the semi-finals.

Date	Matches
PGL Bucharest 2025 Europe Closed Qualifier
12/03/2025	OG 16:00 Betclic	Match

HEROIC was the highest-ranked team in the event and showed some cracks during a competitive group stage, but collapsed against OG despite going 1-0 up in the series after Olle "⁠spooke⁠" Grundström and Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi put up 1.94 and 1.81-rated maps.

The result follows a tumultuous campaign at ESL Pro League Season 21, where Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng's troops were eliminated with a 1-3 record in Stage 1, and adds to a dismal start to the year for the team that also fell short in qualifiers for IEM Dallas, BLAST Open Lisbon, and at the IEM Katowice Play-in.

BetBoom were knocked down to the lower bracket of their group by Spirit Academy, but got revenge over Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin and company and beat Nemiga to reach the playoffs.

All that work was undone by Betclic, who also beat Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic in an impressive group stage run powered by Jakub "⁠jcobbb⁠" Pietruszewski — Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo's Bold Prediction for 2025.

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Several notable names, including BIG, BC.Game, fnatic, and ENCE, bowed out of the qualifier during the all-best-of-three, 32-team group stage, with some — like Ninjas in Pyjamas — still benefitting despite the exit due to the VRS points on offer.

Date	Matches
PGL Bucharest 2025 Europe Closed Qualifier
11/03/2025	HEROIC Finished 1:2 OG	Match
11/03/2025	Betclic Finished 2:0 BetBoom	Match