By Sagar V. Mankar 
MOUZ has clinched its first championship of the 2025 season by winning the PGL Cluj-Napoca Counter-Strike 2 tournament.
This premier event, organized by PGL, took place from February 14 to February 23, 2025, featuring 16 teams competing for a substantial prize pool of $1,250,000 USD.
The competition began with a group stage employing a Swiss System format. In this phase, all matches were best-of-three, and teams were seeded using the Buchholz system based on their initial rankings.
The top eight teams from the group stage advanced to the playoffs, which followed a single-elimination bracket. While all playoff matches were best-of-three, the grand final was a best-of-five showdown.
MOUZ’s Path to Victory
MOUZ faced challenges early in the group stage but managed to secure a playoff spot in their final opportunity. They started the playoffs with a victory over paiN Gaming in the quarterfinals and then defeated Astralis in the semis to advance to the finale.
Team Falcons’ Performance
Team Falcons displayed consistent performance throughout the group stage, securing their playoff position with notable performances, especially from their AWPer, degster. In the quarterfinals, they triumphed over Eternal Fire and then pulled off an upset by defeating FaZe Clan in the semifinals.
Grand Final Showdown
The grand final was a thrilling best-of-five series between MOUZ and Team Falcons. The map selections were as follows:
- Dust2 (Team Falcons’ pick): MOUZ secured this map with a 13-6 victory.
- Mirage (MOUZ’s pick): Team Falcons bounced back, winning 13-4.
- Nuke (Team Falcons’ pick): MOUZ edged out with a 13-11 win.
- Ancient (MOUZ’s pick): MOUZ dominated with a 13-9 victory.
Throughout the series, both teams exhibited exceptional skill and strategy. MOUZ’s tactical prowess on Dust2 set the tone, while Team Falcons’ resilience on Mirage showcased their determination. Nuke was a closely contested map, but MOUZ managed to pull ahead. Finally, on Ancient, MOUZ’s cohesive gameplay secured their championship title.
Prize Distribution
The tournament’s prize pool was allocated as follows:
- MOUZ: $400,000
- Team Falcons: $187,500
- Astralis: $150,000
- FaZe Clan: $87,500
- 5th-8th Place: Eternal Fire, paiN Gaming, The MongolZ, SAW – each receiving $62,500
- 9th-11th Place: 3DMAX, BIG, Virtus.pro – each receiving $31,250
- 12th-14th Place: Complexity, Wildcard, MIBR – each receiving $18,750
- 15th-16th Place: FlyQuest, Imperial Female – each receiving $12,500
Individual Accolades
Notably, NiKo of runner-up – Team Falcons was honored with the HLTV and 1xBet_Esports MVP award for the tournament. This marks his first MVP award with Team Falcons and the ninth of his illustrious career.
Viewership
Originally slated to be held in Buenos Aires, the tournament was relocated to Cluj-Napoca, Romania, due to a packed Counter-Strike 2 calendar, which presented logistical challenges for hosting in Argentina. Cluj-Napoca, renowned for hosting a CS:GO Major in 2015, proved to be a fitting alternative.
The event attracted substantial audiences both offline and online, with peak online viewership reaching 497,379 during the grand final as per Esports Charts. The tournament maintained an average of 200,000 viewers over 16 hours of broadcast time across multiple streaming platforms.