FURIA's winter wonderland has returned for 2026, after their win at TWC and now PGL Masters. It was the exact same last year, when a win at TWC 2025 led to two more trophies to end the year.
But a new sight is that of Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis with an MVP medal, his first-ever after 12 EVPs and winning eight notable trophies.
It was the grand final that sealed the deal for the Latvian, after four maps above a 1.56 rating to kick off championship Sunday.
But crediting the final is not to downplay the rest of the event. YEKINDAR averaged 1.10 KPRW overall, and had nine standout maps including peaks against Liquid, BETBOOM, and MOUZ.
"Age is just a number," YEKINDAR said post-game. "FalleN said I'm out of my prime, but here I am making an MVP run. Honestly, it felt amazing throughout this tournament. Everything was going my way, and maybe this is how donk and ZywOo feel."
Radar Chart Stat Glossary
Rating 3.0: HLTV's composite rating of kills, damage, survival, KAST, multis and Swing
KPRW: Kills per round win
Eco Swing: Duels won above expected value, based on equipment of a player and their opponent
Impact Rounds: Rounds with positive round swing
Round Swing: The win probability sum of a player's actions
A Game: A player's 75th percentile map
B Game: A player's 50th percentile map
C Game: A player's 25th percentile map
Vs Top 10: Rating vs top 10 teams (HLTV Ranking)
Vs Top Half: Rating vs teams who placed in the top half of the event
Rank in Team: Avg. rank within your team by rating
Map Wins: Rating in map wins in series wins
Danil "molodoy" Golubenko
molodoy has come under pressure in 2026 in his attempts to follow up his amazing rookie year, but it's easy to forget that this event marks his fifth EVP of the year.
Having solved his eye issues that troubled him in the middle part of the year, molodoy was back to his best for Bucharest and was the leading MVP candidate before the final.
He smashed Spirit on Ancient in groups, but his highlight was the Dust2 (1.86) and Cache (1.83) map wins against MOUZ in the semi-finals. That victory was a crucial one, against the then tournament favorites.
molodoy then capped it off with a 1.61 rating on map five of the final to ensure FURIA left with back-to-back trophies.
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut
ZywOo hasn't played many events without Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, but he barely missed a beat in Bucharest with five player of the map (POTM) showings and a 1.48 rating in Vitality's map wins.
He was brilliant on Cache against Nemiga with nearly +10% swing and was also good against FUT despite his team not coming up with the goods in the groups.
ZywOo did struggle badly in the third-place decider, but we have treated those matches with a very low weight all year and it could not drop him out of third place.
Oldřich "PR" Nový
PR's arrival turned MOUZ into contenders almost immediately, but his individual form has been fairly patchy throughout that run.
Here though, he was his team's best player with a 1.19 rating (1.35 in map wins) and an eco swing of +5.06%.
He had six standout maps, and four came on Mirage as he fragged out from the unconventional B anchor spot. The 16-14 win against Spirit was particularly good, as he dropped 23 frags in the overtime against the world number one.
Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko
zorte has played at eight Big Events before PGL Masters and never earned an EVP. His best try was actually his very first, at Pro League Season 17 with FORZE.
So his explosion into form three years later came as a surprise but a welcome one. He ended the group stage with a 1.44 rating, tying ZywOo, and was POTM four maps in a row against Spirit and Nemiga.
That level of play meant he was pretty much an EVP before the quarter-final, where a poor Cache undid much of the credit he received for leading BETBOOM's near-comeback on Dust2.
But given that quarter-final was against the eventual champions, and that all of his games were against tough opposition, zorte did enough with his six standout maps to earn that elusive Big Event EVP.
Daniel "syph0" Ageyev
At last, we reach Nemiga and syph0. The team's unlikely run to the grand final echoed that of PARIVISION earlier in the year in that all five players pulled their weight throughout a sustained team effort.
But syph0 did stand just above the rest, boosted by two magnificent overtime performances against Legacy (47 kills, 1.55 rating) and The MongolZ (33 kills, 2.03 rating).
He was also POTM against FUT on Nuke in the quarter-finals, which underlined his ability to lead his team at key moments. He ended the event with a 1.39 rating in map wins, which helped make him the only player from his team to leave with an EVP.
Now the number one prospect, the future looks very bright indeed for young syph0.
The best players of PGL Masters Bucharest 2026, in order:
Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis
Danil "molodoy" Golubenko
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut
Oldřich "PR" Nový
Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko
Daniel "syph0" Ageyev
Honorable mentions
Several players came close to a nod, starting with Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato who very nearly performed a great escape despite starting the event with a 0.83 rating in the first three matches. He was very good from there, but still ended the event with only a 1.04 rating when both teams had a full buy, so fell short.
Beksultan "khaN" Ospan was Nemiga's best player in the grand final, but only had a 1.12 rating in their map wins so credit was split among the team.
Lotan "Spinx" Giladi had a great quarter-final but a less good semi-final, and needed just a smidge more credit to cross the EVP threshold.
Álvaro "SunPayus" García was brilliant on debut for FUT, particularly against Vitality on Mirage and Dust2. But he failed to confirm his EVP in the quarter-finals, where he had a 1.01 rating, as did teammate Dmytro "dem0n" Myroshnychenko.
Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov had a similar route to SunPayus but against even tougher opposition, an average opponent rank of 3.79. As good as his early form was, however, he did not have the volume or height of peaks required for a group stage EVP. After a 0.97-rated quarter-final with a poor decider, that was what he would have needed to break into the list.
Of the players eliminated in groups, Keith "NAF" Markovic, Danil "donk" Kryshkovets and Bruno "latto" Rebelatto stood out.
All-Star
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo retains his place from TWC as the all-star lineup's skipper, joined by molodoy and YEKINDAR from FURIA.
molodoy's spot was under heavy pressure from ZywOo, zorte, SunPayus and w0nderful but his performances en route to the trophy were deemed most valuable.
syph0 is our closer, outdoing KSCERATO and Spinx, to ensure Nemiga have some representation.
Then PR takes up the anchor position after leading MOUZ to third.
Multi-award winners
YEKINDAR joins the gang after adding this MVP to his Cologne Major EVP.
The EVPs of 2026
- Bounty S1
- Cluj-Napoca
- Rotterdam
- Rio
- Astana
- CAC
- XSE PL
- EWC
- FPG3
- EPL S24
- Krakow
- EPL S23
- Bucharest
- Rivals S1
- Atlanta
- Cologne (M)
- Bounty S2
- Porto
- StarSeries
- Masters
Oldřich 'PR' NovýPast 3 months
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicPast 3 months
The MongolZ
Yesuntumur 'nin9' Gantulga
Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren
Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold
Usukhbayar '910' Banzragch
Anarbileg 'cobrazera' Uuganbayar
Erdenedalai 'maaRaa' Bayanbat
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoPast 3 months
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
Danil 'molodoy' GolubenkoPast 3 months
FORZE
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko
Aleksandr 'shalfey' Marenov
Vladislav 'Krad' Kravchenko
Andrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov
Evgeny 'r3salt' Frolov
Liquid
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Georgi 'Jorko' Mitev
Viktor 'flashie' Tamás Bea
Beksultan 'khaN' OspanPast 3 months
PARIVISION
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Vladislav 'xiELO' Lysov
Ivan 'zweih' Gogin
Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev
Daniel 'syph0' AgeyevPast 3 months
Nemiga
Aleksandr 'KaiR0N-' Anashkin
Kirill 'Xant3r' Kononov
Nikita 'robo' Dushin
Beksultan 'khaN' Ospan
Daniel 'syph0' Ageyev
Anton 'boX' Burko
Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePast 3 months
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisPast 3 months
Álvaro 'SunPayus' GarcíaPast 3 months
Ihor 'w0nderful' ZhdanovPast 3 months
FUT
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García
Yasin 'xfl0ud' Koç
Dmytro 'dem0n' Myroshnychenko
Aulon 'Krabeni' Fazlija
Džiugas 'dziugss' Steponavičius
András 'coolio' Fercsák
Bruno 'latto' RebelattoPast 3 months
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoPast 3 months
Dmytro 'dem0n' MyroshnychenkoPast 3 months
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiPast 3 months
Aleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoPast 3 months
Danil 'donk' KryshkovetsPast 3 months
FURIA
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko
Sid 'sidde' Macedo
Legacy
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer
Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto
Santino 'try' Rigal
Italo 'ksloks' Meinberg
Alan 'adrrr' Riveros
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautPast 3 months
MOUZ
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
Adrian 'xelex' Vincze
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
BETBOOM
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko
Pavel 'S1ren' Ogloblin
Daniil 'd1Ledez' Kustov
Kirill 'Magnojez' Rodnov
Artem 'Fierce' Ivanov
Vitality
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam