FaZe, Falcons, MOUZ, Astralis head to PGL Cluj-Napoca semis

FaZe Clan, Team Falcons, MOUZ and Astralis advanced to the semifinals of the $1.25 million PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 event by winning their quarterfinal matches Friday in Romania.

It was nearly a clean sweep, with only one of the four best-of-three matches going the distance. FaZe swept SAW, MOUZ blanked paiN Gaming and Astralis shut out The MongolZ, while Team Falcons defeated Eternal Fire 2-1.

In Saturday's semifinals, FaZe Clan will battle Team Falcons and MOUZ will face off against Astralis.

Sixteen teams started the Counter-Strike 2 competition on Feb. 14. The top eight teams advanced through the group stage to a single-elimination playoff bracket.

All the playoff matches are best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final, where the winning team will take home $400,000.

On Friday, FaZe defeated SAW 13-4 on Ancient and 13-9 on Nuke. Latvian Helvijs "broky" Saukants paced FaZe with 36 kills and a plus-17 kills-to-deaths differential.

Falcons scored a 13-11 win on Train before Eternal Fire answered with a 13-6 result on Dust II. The final map was Nuke, where Falcons grabbed a 13-8 victory. Nikola "NiKo" Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina (61 kills) and Abdul "degster" Gasanov of Russia (55 kills) guided Team Falcons, each finishing with a plus-17 K-D.

MOUZ edged paiN Gaming 13-11 on both Inferno and Mirage for their sweep. Israel's Dorian "xertioN" Berman had 37 kills, one of four MOUZ players to finish with at least 32.

Astralis beat The MongolZ 13-8 on Mirage before pulling out a 16-12 overtime win on Inferno. The all-Danish Astralis roster was led by Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard, who had 44 kills and a plus-14.

PGL Cluj-Napoca prize pool:

1. $400,000

2. $187,500

3. $150,000

4. $87,500

5-8. $62,500 -- SAW, Eternal Fire, paiN Gaming, The MongolZ

9-11. $31,250 -- 3DMAX, BIG, Virtus.pro

12-14. $18,750 -- Wildcard, MIBR, Complexity

15-16. $12,500 -- Imperial Female, FlyQuest

--Field Level Media