Pro teams have their own reasons for banning and picking CS2 maps during a Major event. Still, the stats from the StarLadder tournament in Budapest can be interesting for your personal experience as well.
Counter-Strike 2 Majors are the ultimate reflections of in-game trends. It’s true for top-level strategies and just for map picks.
Compared to the Austin Major 2025, the tournament in Budapest featured Overpass instead of Anubis. For Train, it was the second Major after the map replaced Vertigo at the end of 2024.
All map picks at the CS2 Budapest Major 2025: Swiss stages and Playoffs
The table below highlights the stats for each map in the CS2 Active Duty Pool — specifically from the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025.
CS2 maps Times played* Picked in Bo1 Played in both Majors of 2025* | Dust II 31 13 66 | Mirage 30 9 56 | Inferno 28 6 59 | Nuke 24 12 49 | Train 24 9 38 | Ancient 18 6 40 | Overpass 14 5 14 | Anubis - - 21 |
Dust II was the most played map at the CS2 Major in Budapest
The gap to other top popular maps on this Major is not too big, but still, Dust II was played the most in Budapest.
It’s a classic Counter-Strike map, and this popularity is understandable. Still, some people in the community are pretty loud with their request to replace Dust II.
- In the grand final, Team Vitality dominated against FaZe on Dust II. It became a turning point, as Vitality totally recovered after a disastrous Map 1, Nuke.
CS2 Mirage and Inferno are on the top, too
While Inferno may have plenty of haters, it remains popular at the CS2 Majors. Shooting in the limited space of Banana can go both ways, sure, but when you catch the wave, the map is pretty satisfying.
- Inferno featured a great recovery attempt for FURIA in their semifinal versus NAVI. That 1v3 clutch by Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo is already in the history books: he caught opponents running from A and defused at the last moments.
Mirage is often praised as perfectly balanced. The top teams at the Budapest Major played this CS2 map quite a lot.
- Vitality had a difficult start on Mirage during their semifinal against Spirit. They recovered and won the map in three overtimes. Spirit crumbled after that.
Nuke was the second most played map in best-of-one matches
Picks for Bo1 matches are especially interesting, as both teams try to play on their best maps: there are no recovery attempts. Nuke shone for this purpose! The map was also decently highlighted in Bo3 matches and in the grand final.
- FaZe defeated Vitality twice on Nuke: in the first round of Stage 1 and on the opening grand final map.
Ancient and Overpass are in danger
These two maps were the least played overall. Usually, Valve comes with an Active Duty pool change after a Counter-Strike Major, replacing the least popular map. That happened with Vertigo.
Overpass was added to the CS2 competitive pool in the middle of 2025, so it’s unlikely we will see its removal. Ancient remains a potential victim of this rotation.
- Overpass was picked in the Playoffs only once: as Map 4 in the grand final. Vitality delivered their dominant performance over FaZe there.
- Ancient was also played in the final brackets once. NAVI defeated FaZe on it: they lost two other maps, though.
During the Budapest Major Playoffs, the official stream often highlighted people in the crowd. There was a specific map request in the arena: Cobblestone. If the map makes it to CS2, it should happen ahead of the 2026 esports season in the nearest updates.
