StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 Stage 1 preview – All 16 teams in detail
The StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 kicks off on November 24, with Stage 1 marking the start of the tournament for 16 of the 32 participating teams.
FaZe, Legacy, Fnatic, and Ninjas in Pyjamas are amongst the teams starting in the first of three Swiss stages, representing the lower-ranked teams in the Valve Regional Standings (VRS).
Counter-Strike Majors are frequently defined by who can start fast and build momentum throughout the tournament, so let’s review the 16 teams and who has form coming into the Budapest Major.
While nothing is predictable when Best of 1s are involved, each team will be adjudged on a scale from ‘Extremely likely to advance‘ to ‘Extremely unlikely to advance.’
So how are the teams shaping up?
How do the Stage 1 teams look going into the CS2 Budapest Major?
Legacy:
Legacy would not be in Stage 1 of the tournament if the draw was made today.
The roster has made unprecedented strides since the October 6 invite cutoff, coming runner-up at PGL Masters Bucharest and winning the organisation’s biggest trophy to date with victory at the CS Asia Championships.
Like compatriots Furia, who now sit world number 1 in the VRS after winning the Thunderpick World Championship, Fissure Playground 2, IEM Chengdu, and BLAST Rivals Hong Kong, it seems that the second half of the year has been a new dawn for Brazilian CS.
As a result of recent form, if the draw were made today, Legacy would go straight through to Stage 3 as the number two Americas seed.
Instead, they will have to fight from the start, but if recent form is to be believed, they should demolish the other Stage 1 opposition.
Prediction: Extremely likely to advance.
FaZe:
FaZe are the highest profile name in Stage 1, but their appearance there is indicative of how strugglesome the year has been for Finn ‘karrigan’ Anderson and his band of unmerry men.
The roster currently sits at #16 in the VRS, a dramatic fall from 2024 when they reached back-to-back Major Grand Finals.
In a 2025 which saw multiple shuffles to try to revive the tired project, FaZe go into Budapest having only played with this exact roster at the CS Asia Championships and IEM Chengdu.
On both occasions, the roster had disappointing exits, finishing joint-last place at IEM Chengdu and missing out on playoffs at CAC, which was technically a Tier 2 event.
The roster had a good result with Jakub ‘jcobbb’ Pietruszewski at BLAST London, where they finished 3rd/4th, and a good result with Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken at Pro League, but no positive results with both.
At BLAST London, Havard ‘rain’ Nygaard was still part of the roster, and at ESL Pro League, rain was forced to stand-in for FaZe to maintain their invited VRS core.
They have yet to get their team working without the player who spent a decade in FaZe colours.
Perhaps most worryingly of all, their overall form has not improved despite Twistzz hugely delivering upon his return to the FaZe ranks.
They’re in trouble; they seem extremely unlikely to conjure ‘FaZe magic’ at the Major, but they are still better than the majority of teams at Stage 1.
Prediction: Likely to advance, will give fans a heart attack regardless.
GamerLegion:
GamerLegion has looked like a team bereft of confidence for much of the second half of the year.
The team, led by highly-rated British coach, Ashley ‘Ash’ Battye, were in fine form from Spring to early Summer.
The signings of Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner and Oldřich ‘PR’ Nový looked extremely astute, with PR arguably the rookie for the first half of the year.
However, the team regressed as it struggled to find a suitable AWPer. Henrich ‘sl3nd’ Hevesi’s fall in form gave way to Jeremy ‘kursy’ Gast, who never looked like a good fit for Tier 1.
In signing Milan ‘hypex’ Polowiec, the AWP position is still a question, but the rifling core surrounding hypex seems to have woken up.
A positive showing at PGL Masters Bucharest means that REZ, PR, and Sebastian ‘Tauson’ Lindelof are finally looking more like themselves, after months of seemingly being in a collective malaise.
Confidence seems to be tonic to GamerLegion’s woes, whether it is confidence in their AWPer or themselves. They have at least regained some at the right time.
Prediction: Likely to advance
Fnatic:
Fnatic took a big risk in their roster management upon qualifying for the major in replacing Cai ‘CYPHER’ Watson with Mykyta ‘jackasmo’ Skyba.
While CYPHER’s stats were admittedly modest, Fnatic are at risk of upending their structure with jackasmo typically being a less aggressive piece.
The result was evident in Fnatic’s Overpass showing against GamerLegion at PGL Masters Bucharest. On the heavily CT-sided map, they managed only one T-round before succumbing 13-7.
To make progress in the major, the individuals in the team may have to play against their own instincts and be selfless to make space for the team.
However, the team’s core, representing the core of the old Passion UA Ukrainian roster, should be familiar enough to find solutions and enable Benjamin ‘BlameF’ Bremer to find his impact.
At least in Stage 1, that is…
Prediction: Strong chance of advancing
Ninjas in Pyjamas:
NiP’s form is truly worrying.
In making the Major, NiP completed a long journey that started in January, building up from nothing with a new core to make Counter-Strike’s biggest event.
Yet, it could be argued that most of that progress was made last season, and that qualifying for IEM Cologne to start the season was the high-water mark for the roster.
The organisation’s management continued to carefully select LANs to attend in order to build their VRS points and get the major.
Yet the result is that they have very little experience in Tier 1 events, and when touching those events, they’ve had little success.
They go into the event after last place finish at PGL Masters Bucharest, itself not a well-attended event in terms of top opposition.
Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer’s experience may pay off and enable strong performances from his stars, but does the roster really add up to much?
NiP will start against NRG, a winnable matchup, but one they lost in the Grand Final of Fragville 2025.
Prediction: Unlikely to advance
M80:
Back to their old logo, and back to form?
M80 have been keeping themselves sharp at local NA LANs, finishing second at Fragadelphia Ultra Mega Jersey after being reverse-swept by NRG, but winning DreamHack Knockout Atlanta and earning a return to Pro League.
The team’s play at its best is capable of big surprises, with Mason ‘Lake’ Sanderson being an explosive entry talent when on form.
That potential was displayed at BLAST London, where they finished 5th-6th, after online victories over NaVi and Fnatic.
Yet at ESL Pro League, the team were eliminated in Stage 1 after only beating Aussie roster, Rooster.
They are a tough team to call, as their high ceiling is paired with a low floor.
In their home major of Austin, they were eliminated in Stage 2, and I’ll be optimistic and say that they will do the same in Budapest.
Prediction: Strong chance of advancing
NRG:
NRG come into the Major with strong domestic form, which extends to Fragadelphia events that had moderate European attendance.
Frag tournament victories, which included wins against SAW, NiP, and M80, show that there may be a pathway out of groups for Liquid’s former Captain America, Nick ‘nitr0’ Cannella.
2025 additions of Zack ‘XotiC’ Elshani and Aran ‘Sonic’ Groesbeek, a refugee from the disasterclass of Wildcard’s management, have strengthened the roster’s firepower and stability.
The implosion of Wildcard has put NRG higher up in the NA power rankings, but whether that is enough to advance is hard to say.
At the BLAST.tv Austin Major, no NA team advanced from the stage they began the major at. That pattern may be broken in Budapest, but for NRG I think it’s unlikely.
Prediction: Unlikely to advance
Lynn Vision:
Lynn Vision remain unchanged from their famous BLAST.tv Austin Major run, which saw them make it all the way to Stage 3 before falling to a 1-3 record.
The Chinese roster gained a lot of fans from Junjie ‘EmiliaQAQ’ Tang’s idiosyncratic interviews, combined with their on-server success.
Victories against GamerLegion, 3DMAX, and paiN in the second half of the year show they are still capable, despite going 0-3 at Fissure Playground 2.
Domestically, they have defeated Rare Atom a number of times, displaying their continued position in the pecking order above other Chinese rosters, but below Tyloo.
While another Stage 3 run is unlikely, the Chinese roster remains strongly likely to advance.
Prediction: Likely to advance
Imperial:
In ranking, Imperial is the second strongest of the Stage 1 Brazilian teams behind Legacy.
Yet their domestic form is not particularly dominant, with losses to Galorys, Sharks, Fluxo and MIBR in recent times.
The roster’s signing of former SAW player, José ‘Shr’ Gil has proven to be a failed experiment with Felipe ‘skullz’ Medeiros taking his place.
Like skullz as an individual, the team feels more solid than spectacular.
In Stage 1, perhaps solid is enough. The team certainly does not lack major appearances, with each player having multiple majors under their belt.
What Imperial do have in their favour is Santino ‘try’ Rigal. The AWPer is a rare piece in 2025, an AWPer whose rating justifies the economic burden of buying the AWP.
The Argentinian is averaging 1.26 in the last three months, perhaps opening a path for Imperial.
Prediction: Strong chance of advancing
FlyQuest:
The prodigal son has returned! Justin ‘jks’ Savage will play his first major with an Australian organisation since Berlin 2019 (coincidentally, the last StarLadder Major).
His return was an exciting moment, but what is more significant is that FlyQuest are looking more functional of late.
The roster is finding its balance after a long period of struggling to know when best to employ Iulian ‘regali’ Harjău’s aggressive AWPing.
Additionally, Joshua ‘INS’ Potter is providing strong impact while IGLing.
Victories at PGL Masters Bucharest against Fnatic and 3DMAX put them on the precipice of playoffs before the roster fell off the edge, yet the signs are still more positive than before.
At Berlin 2019, with jks, Renegades made the semi-finals. The romantic in me may want to believe, but the innate lack of firepower in the roster will be an issue at the major, especially in their opening match against Legacy.
While FlyQuest are certainly improving, is that improvement enough to get them to Stage 2? I’m not so sure.
Prediction: Unlikely to advance
Parivision:
Success was not instant for Parivision upon the signing of Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali, with the team changing three players in that time.
However, Jame, alongside his long-time coaching comrade Dastan ‘dastan’ Akbayev, now have the players they want, players they can mould to be selfish soldiers of the system.
The last few months have seen Parivision truly take hold of Tier 2 Counter-Strike, with multiple tournament victories both online and in LAN.
One can’t help but feel it is ‘Jame Time’ again, when the Major rolls in.
While Parivision may not replicate Outsiders’ outside run to the Rio 2022 Major, Jame and dastan’s experience should put them in a strong position to convert their form to Stage 1 wins.
Prediction: Likely to advance
Fluxo:
Fluxo went out of the BLAST.TV Austin Major with a 0-3 record in Stage 1, losing to Chinggis Warriors along the way.
They were one of the most popular 0-3 picks for pick’ems, and will likely be so again.
Their current form is not dramatically improved from prior to the last major, but Lucas ‘Lucaozy’ Neves and Lucas ‘decenty’ Bacelar are on paper upgrades.
As they say, ‘the game is not played on paper’, but recent tournament victory at Circuit X Retake São Paulo and a win at Pro League over NRG shows they may not go 0-3 at the very least.
Prediction: Unlikely to advance
Rare Atom:
As mentioned, Rare Atom have fully cemented themselves as the ‘best of the rest’ in the Chinese scene, winning multiple ESL Challenger Asia tournaments where Lynn Vision or Tyloo are absent, but cannot overcome their regional rivals when presented with them.
Chances against Tier 1 opposition have been few and far between, with no signs of recent success. PGL Bucharest, Fissure Playground 1, and BLAST Bounty Season 2 all passed Rare Atom by without a single map win.
Perhaps most disappointingly, the roster failed to qualify for their home Tier 2 event of CAC 2025, losing to a regional mix in the open qualifiers.
The roster has also struggled with its composition in the second half of 2025, removing HaoWen ‘somebody’ Xu in favour of Aojie ‘Trash’ Tian. Trash was then taken out, with Junbing ‘Tiger’ Zhen replacing him.
Veteran Malaysian legend, Andrew ‘kaze’ Khong, was also let go of recently, with Tzu-Chi ‘Marek’ Huang taking his place only four weeks ago.
Prediction: Extremely unlikely to advance
The Huns:
Mongolian Counter-Strike is one of the most romantic scenes in all of esports. The esport has a cultural presence on the 3.5 million population that can not be compared to even Denmark or Russia.
The success of The MongolZ has created incredible scenes of thousands of fans watching them play in the middle of the night.
The Huns players, Tengis ‘sK0R’ Batjargal, Yesuntumur ‘9ine’ Gantulga, and Baatarkhuu ‘Bart4k’ Batbold all took part in The MongolZ’s amazing journey, as part of The MongolZ or IHC, which became the new iteration of The MongolZ.
Bart4k will especially feel their success, as Ayush ‘mzinho’ Batbold’s elder brother.
The Huns are at the major because of that success, essentially, as The MongolZ’s success improved the Asian slots for the major, yet as romantic as it is, I think this is as far as The Huns go.
Prediction: Extremely unlikely to advance
Red Canids:
Red Canids are the lowest-ranked team at the major, which perhaps says everything you need to know. Yet the talent is there, if you want to believe.
The team is built around longstanding player, 21-year-old Carlos ‘venomzera’ Eduardo, with familiar faces in André ‘drop’ Abreu and Kaue ‘kauez’ Kaschuk present.
While the team may seem like a sort of leftover bin of Brazilian talent, recent wins against MIBR and Fluxo show they may not be exactly at the bottom of the pile.
But to be realistic, they have to be somewhere around there.
Prediction: Extremely unlikely to advance
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