It’s not a big prophecy to assume that most Pick’Ems placed FURIA as the winners here. NAVI struggled immensely against these opponents in the Swiss stage. But could that competitive suffering teach them how to crack the Major favorites?
One of the quarterfinals at StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 featured a rerun of a best-of-one battle from Stage 3: NAVI faced FURIA again. The winners secured the semifinal and a chance to remain in the trophy run.
Everything about this CS2 esports match between NAVI and FURIA is here.
How to watch NAVI vs FURIA at the CS2 Budapest Major 2025
This Budapest Major quarterfinal was played on Dec. 12. You can watch the stream NAVI vs FURIA here or on the official YouTube channel. The teams played right after MOUZ versus FaZe — it was unexpected win from FaZe, 2:0.
NAVI versus FURIA: Maps, score, and details
Map bans | Map 1 | Map 2 | Map 3 | Match score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overpass, NAVI Ancient, FURIA Dust II, FURIA Nuke, NAVI | Mirage, NAVI pick | Inferno, FURIA pick | Train, decider | NAVI 2:1 FURIA |
| NAVI 13:5 FURIA | NAVI 13:16 FURIA | NAVI 13:3 FURIA |
The map selection was especially interesting for this matchup. FURIA destroyed NAVI on Nuke. This time, they had other picks, and Natus Vincere were prepared!
- NAVI won this quarterfinal with dominant Mirage and Train. FURIA pulled off an amazing comeback on Inferno, but that wasn't enough to justify the high expectations of the fans and even pro analysts.
FURIA are out of the Budapest Major. NAVI will play against FaZe in the semifinal.
“We had a very good [start of] Inferno, and after that, we went for the T side, and we kind of had a plan how we would play. But it didn’t work that well. [In that round with FalleN retake], we thought he was saving. We went out on Long, [...] and he caught us.
[After Inferno,] B1ad3 said ‘forget that map, play Train like nothing happened before’.
We take it game by game. It can be FURIA, it can be Vitality, or it can be anyone. After a game [...] we see what we could do better.”
Mirage
NAVI made a great statement from the very beginning: they won the pistols and the conversion rounds.
FURIA could have a nice comeback in Round 2 thanks to a HE by Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato — it took down two NAVI players. That did not help, but FURIA still won their first gun round and ruined NAVI’s economy. Yuri "yuurih" Boian delivered a 1v1 win vs Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen in round 5 to have a success spike for his team.
Natus Vincere had to start over from 3:3, and this time they had a wonderful streak. They were solid individually and played as a team.
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo took the last round of the first half. Then FURIA won 2v5 in Round 15. That was it for the favorites.
NAVI won both pistols. In Round 16, Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov had a nice hidden position on A to earn 3K and stop FURIA’s offense. Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen and Drin "makazze" Shaqiri rotated via CT to retake A and win the map.
Inferno
NAVI had a great CT side, but their play fell apart in the second half. FURIA pulled off an amazing comeback and hit their opponents really hard.
After losing the first pistols, NAVI took the conversion round on force buy. FURIA responded by winning Round 5 with SMGs.
makazze was very brave in Banana, taking deep positions aggressively. In Round 7, he even jumped on KSCERATO to earn an early man advantage. W0nderful sealed that with a kill on Danil "molodoy" Golubenko, so FURIA couldn't retrieve the bomb.
In the first half, NAVI won even when FURIA had good moments, like planting on B but having two FURIA players with low health defending from retake. Or FURIA players could make it to empty B but drop the bomb in an awkward position.
On the CT side, FURIA woke up. NAVI won the pistols: a lot thanks to makazze’s opening double kill. In Round 14, FURIA won a force buy to start their recovery.
NAVI had great moves but couldn’t finish them. In Round 20, they rotated brilliantly to A, but they couldn’t find Yuri "yuurih" Boian in Pit, and it gave the win to FURIA.
Then FalleN proved his level in a mind-blowing 1v3 retake. In Round 21, he caught NAVI heading away from the bomb, cleared the A site, and defused with less than a second left. Another interesting moment from FalleN was his sneaky rotation through smoke to be behind the backs of NAVI in Round 25.
Eventually, molodoy confirmed being the rookie of the year. His AWP started working as intended, like 3K in Round 26.
NAVI had no response to this FURIA, so the Budapest Major quarterfinal went to Map 3.
Train
NAVI dominated on Train and left FURIA almost no chance to play the game. That 13:3 was quite a way to advance to the semifinal!
In the pistols, Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis found two opening kills, but NAVI still won the round. FURIA took their first gun round, but then, they needed to wait till the end of this half to secure another one. It was a disaster on the potentially favorable CT side.
FURIA still had good moments: like landing HE perfectly on the bomb planting spot, but it was just a moment late.
NAVI were clinical in their bombsite entrances. In Round 8, the CT opponents looked awfully confused. makazze proved himself worthy of his place in the team multiple times on this map. For instance, he won a round by landing the final kill when there was no time to plant.
After the side switch, FURIA won Round 15 on a low buy. It didn’t go too far. molodoy was still missing his shots, and it looked like he crumbled under the big pressure.
NAVI had lots of chances to seal the deal after they reached the match point, but they didn’t play with the fans’ hearts. Valerii "b1t" Vakhovskyi found two opening kills in the final round and made the task for his team much easier. NAVI won the Budapest Major 2025 quarterfinal!
On the rise and in the turbulence: Match preview
Even beyond that 13:2 in Round 1 of Stage 3, FURIA players are considered the strong favorites in this matchup. The team is on the rise, while NAVI have been battling a weird turbulence.
FURIA entered the Budapest Major with a few tournament wins in their pockets.
- They started this amazing series with FISSURE Playground #2 and finished with the IEM Chengdu and BLAST Rivals Fall 2025.
- During the Major’s Stage 3, FURIA also defeated Imperial and G2. Only in the second half of Map 2, Overpass, G2 showed something really competitive.
NAVI won only a lower-tier StarSeries Fall 2025 — this season and actually this year.
- In the second half of 2025, NAVI were in the top 4 at IEM Cologne. Then, they fell as low as winning no matches in Chengdu: defeated by Astralis and eliminated by HEROIC.
- NAVI lost to FURIA at the grand final of Thunderpick World Championship 2025. It’s a match to forget for Natus Vincere, as they were 2:0 ahead and FURIA pulled off a reverse sweep on them.
- After a pretty good run in Stage 2 of the Budapest Major, NAVI barely qualified for the Playoffs. They lost to Vitality but defeated three underdogs to advance to this quarterfinal.
We will know the Champions of the CS2 Budapest Major 2025 on Sunday, Dec. 16. Depending on the Playoffs results, big teams may unleash roster changes in the upcoming break.
