PGL Bucharest starts this week, providing everyone with an opportunity to find out just how bad Astralis are, how much worse Complexity are than that, and whatever the hell an Apogee is.

We jest. It’s not all bad. FaZe, G2, and Falcons are all there, at least.

Oh, wait a minute.

Let’s try that again. It’s not all bad; Eternal Fire and The MongolZ are both there.

There, that’s better.

The event is a fantastic opportunity for the two teams, currently both tainted by the same bottler title. They’re the two highest-rated teams in attendance, and given the form of everyone else involved, they have to be looked at as the favourites.

Unfortunately, it won’t actually be that great of an opportunity for the two teams to shake their current reputations, the event won’t actually have an arena portion. At all.

That’s right. PGL is hosting a $1.250.000 prize pool event in a studio. Yeah, we don’t get it either. We know it’s cheaper, but it’s not exactly a great experience for any possible viewer, and it prevents your event from gaining any kind of prestige.

So why give it such a big prize pool? We just can’t tell you.

Regardless, we’re still quite excited for the event. Even if it’s going to be in a studio, lifting the trophy could do a lot for the confidence of both The MongolZ and Eternal Fire. And that’s a good thing for Counter-Strike.

It will also be good when all of the currently underwhelming teams outperform their average placements and then ultimately disappoint again at the next real big event. You know, because we enjoy suffering here at tl;dr.

Speaking of suffering, you just know VP are going to win the whole thing, and we think that’s bloody brilliant.

We can already hear your tears.