FUT Esports wins CS2 title

FUT Esports won PGL Bucharest on April 11, beating Astralis 3-1 in the Counter-Strike 2 grand final for the organization’s first top-level LAN trophy. (hltv.org) The best-of-five final turned on four maps: FUT won Ancient 13-5, Mirage 13-5 and Dust2 13-3, while Astralis took Nuke 16-14. The event ran from April 4 to April 11 in Bucharest, Romania, with 16 teams in the field. (hltv.org 1) (hltv.org 2) FUT finished first after an unbeaten Swiss stage and then beat B8 in the quarterfinals, The MongolZ in the semifinals and Astralis in the final. Counter-Strike statistic site HLTV listed Nikita “cmtry” Samolotov as the event Most Valuable Player with a 1.24 rating. (hltv.org 1) (hltv.org 2) The result landed in a Counter-Strike 2 season shaped by Valve’s ranking system, which ties tournament invites and Major qualification to recent results. PGL Bucharest was listed by HLTV as a Tier 1 event with a $1.25 million prize pool, including $200,000 for FUT and an equal club share. (blast.tv) (hltv.org) It also arrived during a week of game changes. Valve said in a Counter-Strike update that it refactored how player height works on sloped surfaces, making ramp behavior consistent regardless of approach direction after players flagged an aiming issue on inclines. (counter-strike.net) Valve shipped that fix as part of its Animgraph 2 work, a broader animation-system update the company said reduces CPU and networking costs. Valve also warned that grenade lineups on sloped surfaces may have changed as a result. (counter-strike.net) The roster market kept moving after Bucharest. HLTV reported on April 15 that Ninjas in Pyjamas signed Martin “stavn” Lund as their primary AWP sniper, replacing Artem “r1nkle” Moroz in the starting lineup. (hltv.org) That leaves FUT with the trophy, Valve with another gameplay adjustment on the live game, and the wider Counter-Strike 2 field still shifting before the next major events. (hltv.org) (counter-strike.net) (hltv.org)