Legacy, Ninjas in Pyjamas & GamerLegion suffer opening losses at StarLadder Budapest Major 2025
The opening Best of 1s delivered their predictably unpredictable results, as favourites fell in multiple contests at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025.
Legacy, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and GamerLegion all fell to surprise losses, with NiP’s loss coming ignominiously against NRG’s coach playing as a stand-in.
StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 Stage 1 Round 1 round-up
M80 survive B8 fightback
M80 shows a strong proactive CT-side on Mirage to start the major with a substantial lead of 10-2 at the half. Not allowing B8 time to set up their laboured executes, they cut the Ukrainian team down before they were in position.
A faltering T-side threatened to derail the map for the American roster, but Jadan ‘HexT’ Postma and Fritz ‘slaxz-‘ Dietrich combined in a 3v5 turnaround to close out the map when overtime beckoned.
While the victory is welcome, the team’s susceptibility to suffering under pressure was displayed in full and will have to be mitigated from now on.
Imperial sneak past Rare Atom
Imperial displayed a similar collapse on Dust 2, winning the CT-side 9-3 before their lead collapsed. The Brazilians ultimately won 13-11, but it was an unflattering start nonetheless.
Marcelo ‘chelo’ Cespedes showed his Major experience in a sharp start that saw him go 24/15 overall, with Felipe ‘skullz’ Medeiros overperforming his roles to go 20/13.
Rare Atom’s spirited fightback was ended by an A hit which saw the Chinese roster fail to bolster the under pressure site, falling one by one in a desperate retake attempt which gave Imperial their first victory in Budapest.
FlyQuest destroy Legacy 3-0 pick-ems predictors
FlyQuest faced a tough start, playing against the highest-ranked team of Stage 1 of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 in Legacy.
The Brazilian roster unusually left Train available in the veto, and early signs were not great as they lost the pistol and the conversion.
They gradually wrestled the half back, with Guilherme ‘saadzin’ Pacheco scoring a collateral in a 2v4 situation to take control of the half.
However, 8-4 is not a commanding lead to Train’s highly CT-sided meta, and that point was proven yet again as FlyQuest asserted themselves on the defending half.
Declan ‘Vexite’ Portelli and Justin ‘jks’ Savage stared as the Aussies took control, winning nine unanswered rounds in a row to upset Legacy 13-10.
Parvision overcome The Huns
What map should you not play against a Mongolian roster? You would think Parivision would realise the danger of playing The Huns on Mirage’s traditionally puggy streets, but seemingly, they had other ideas.
Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali seemingly let The Huns have a comfortable map, with the idea of relying on their overall superiority.
Initially, it seemed a great risk as The Huns raced to a 5-0 lead on the T-side, behind Yesuntumur ‘nin9’ Gantulga’s fragging output.
A 7-5 half lead for The Huns seemed to suggest upset potential, but The Huns would only get one more round.
Vladislav ‘xIELO’ Lysov was on fire, delivering a 13/4 K/D as Parivision raced to victory, 13-8.
NRG humble Ninjas in Pyjamas
Prior to the beginning of the competition, all the talk was about coach Damian ‘daps’ Steele starting in for Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella, who misses the event due to the upcoming birth of his child.
Many fans and pundits put NRG as a 0-3 pick due to that issue, but daps did not look out of place in the server against NiP.
In fact, he called an excellent T-side, utilising his stars and playing his life well to allow them to activate, as NRG secured 6 T-side rounds on the heavily CT-sided map.
Winning the second pistol put NRG in a fantastic position to close out the map.
In response, NiP decided to play out one of the most lamentable halves of Counter-Strike that they have ever mustered.
They looked clueless, lost, and pedestrian as they lacked any ability to create an opening on the map.
They won only one T-side round as NRG dispatched them 13-7.
GamerLegion fall to Fluxo in Nuke brawl
Nuke traditionally has the reputation of being Counter-Strike’s most tactically adept map, but Fluxo and GamerLegion’s contest was more similar to a Mirage contest in style.
A hugely scrappy series of rounds saw Fluxo claim five T-side rounds, though it could have been far more if clutches had gone their way and ninja defuses had been spammed accurately.
The nature of the map meant a fast start would be needed from GamerLegion’s T-side, but it was anything but as they fell to a 7-10 deficit.
Never winning two T-side rounds in a row, GamerLegion could not break Fluxo as they traded round after round, ultimately leading to a 13-10 scoreline in Fluxo’s favour.
FaZe Clan breeze past Lynn Vision
After technical difficulties at the Star Ladder Budapest Major, the Faze Clan vs Lynn Vision best of 1 was interrupted, but eventually reached its conclusion.
While Lynn Vision managed to accomplish a few early detonations, FaZe’s gunplay had them shoot up to a 9-3 lead.
After the halfway point, Lynn Vision won a couple of rounds on the Counter Terrorist side, but it was too little too late as FaZe then closed out four consecutive rounds to win the match 13-5.
FaZe’ David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský had a phenomenal game, finishing with a 25-7 K-D, 138.1 average damage and a 2.03 rating.
Krimz ace saves Fnatic against Red Candids
Fnatic versus Red Candids came down to the wire.
Red Candids got off to an excellent start, winning five T-side rounds in a row to put the pressure on but Fnatic were able to hold their nerve.
Both teams won 7-5 on T-side, with the game going into overtime thanks to an ace from veteran Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson.
Fnatic then remained composed to win overtime 4-2 and take the series 16-14.
Nikita ‘jackasmo’ Skyba, who controversially replaced Cai ‘CYPHER’ Watson, had a brilliant game, finishing with the most kills (22) and highest average damage (82.7).
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