NAVI will have to qualify for the PGS 2026 Circuit 3 Series 1 final through the Survival Stage after missing a direct berth from the Winners Stage. The Ukrainian lineup had initially finished seventh in the Group Stage before placing 10th in the next phase.
NAVI’s PGS 2026 Circuit 3 campaign opened slowly. The team finished last in its first Group Stage match and collected just one point, putting early pressure on its remaining games.
The situation improved as the day progressed. NAVI won the third match of their campaign and later added another top-three finish, recovering sufficiently to close the Group Stage in seventh place and secure a spot in the Winners Stage.
That gave NAVI an opportunity to bypass the tournament’s elimination phase. Sixteen teams contested five Winners Stage matches, with the top eight qualifying directly for the Final Stage and receiving Advantage Points.
NAVI fell short of that cutoff and finished the Winners Stage in 10th place. They will now enter the Survival Stage, where only eight of the 16 competing teams will progress to the Series 1 final.
The result comes less than two weeks after one of NAVI’s strongest PUBG performances of the season. Anton «Feyerist» Dutchak, Vitalii «Hakatory» Shaida, Artem «boost1k-» Tsvihun and Yaroslav «spyrro» Kuvichko finished third at the Esports World Cup 2026.
NAVI collected 124 points across 18 Grand Final matches at EWC, finishing behind Virtus.pro and The Vicious. The third-place result earned the organization $213,000 in prize money.
Their earlier PUBG Global Series results have been less consistent. NAVI finished 13th in Circuit 2 Series 1 before improving to fourth place in Series 2. They subsequently ended the Circuit 2 Series Final in 10th.
That makes PGS 2026 Circuit 3 particularly important in the broader season. Starting with the third circuit, PUBG Esports doubled the number of PGS Points available compared with the opening half of the year, increasing the impact of each result on the qualification race for PUBG Global Championship 2026.
NAVI are not the only Ukrainian representatives involved in the Shanghai competition. Team Nemesis, whose roster also features Ukrainian players, entered Series 1 alongside NAVI in Group C.
The Survival Stage is now NAVI’s immediate priority. Sixteen teams will play five matches, with the top eight advancing to the Final Stage and the remaining eight being eliminated from Series 1.
PGS 2026 Circuit 3 runs in Shanghai from August 5-23 and consists of three consecutive series. The circuit carries a combined $500,000 prize pool, with $100,000 available in each of the opening two events and $300,000 allocated to the Series Final.
