The tournament Playoffs featured plenty of surprises: the Pick’Ems fell apart for most people. Still, Team Vitality lived up to their status as the favorites — despite late activation in two key matches.
Winning the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 certainly is a historic achievement for Team Vitality. It's the third such title for the organization, which is only one less than the legendary Astralis. Also, it’s the second CS2 Major title in a row for this specific roster.
Easy start, long wake-ups, and dominant statement: Vitality’s run in the Budapest Major Playoffs
When the Major Playoffs brackets were revealed, the community generally expected to see Vitality and FURIA in the grand final. At least one part of this puzzle turned out to be correct. Still, Team Vitality faced serious difficulties at times.
The start of the Playoffs run was rather easy for Vitality. They stomped over The MongolZ — that quarterfinal featured two confident maps.
The MongolZ brought a new player to the roster and had a shaky season. They can be proud of even making it to the Playoffs in this situation. Team Vitality turned out to be too much of an opponent for this version of The MongolZ.
Difficulties for Vitality revealed themselves in the match versus Team Spirit. There was a disturbingly long wake-up period on the first map. Spirit players looked amazing — but then Vitality remembered they were playing at the Budapest Major, activated their power, and won the map after three overtimes.
It looked like Team Spirit, and specifically Danil "donk" Kryshkovets, fell victim to their own emotions on Map 2, as that was a much easier win for Vitality.
In the grand final, Team Vitality played against FaZe Clan. The awakening period was stretched to the entire first map this time. On Nuke, FaZe destroyed Vitality, as even Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut could not land his famous AWP shots.
The dominant play started on Dust II, so the worries about FaZe’s active map pool became very reasonable. Inferno was slightly competitive, but then Vitality won the series and the tournament with a mind-blowing 13:2 on Overpass.
Vitality are the Budapest Major Champions! This team is one of the greatest in Counter-Strike esports.
From Stage 1 to the grand final: Amazing FaZe!
It feels like Stage 1 and FaZe’s struggles against smaller teams were in a different dimension. But that period was real: FaZe barely advanced to Stage 2, while people were talking about the necessity of roster changes. They pointed specifically at Jakub "jcobbb" Pietruszewski.
Then, FaZe dashed through Stage 2, and they even defeated Vitality in the opening match of Stage 3 — sure, that was a best-of-one battle, and Vitality just started the tournament.
In the Playoffs, almost no one believed in FaZe. However, they crushed MOUZ, including a 13:2 on Inferno, and performed an amazing comeback in the semifinal against NAVI.
It was the third CS2 Major grand final for FaZe Clan: out of four such tournaments for this version of the game. One last push is missing, and we certainly should keep an eye on this fantastic team in the Counter-Strike 2 esports season 2026.
NAVI to defeat the biggest favorites and their personal monsters
The loss to FaZe Clan was painful, but NAVI still can be proud of their achievements at the Budapest Major.
They entered the tournament from Stage 2, which is low for such a team. The season was strangely difficult for NAVI: they were in the top 4 at IEM Cologne 2025 but then won no match at IEM Chengdu, right before the Major.
Facing FURIA in the quarterfinal? Many expected that to be the last match for NAVI. The personal experience in this matchup could leave scars: it was a reverse sweep from FURIA in the grand final of the Thunderpick World Championship 2025.
This time, NAVI did not let that happen — even if they were close to this when FURIA recovered with their crazy play on Inferno. Still, NAVI won over the biggest favorites of the Budapest Major.
The problem with the opponents striking back did not disappear, though. NAVI had a great start in the semifinal against FaZe, but they couldn’t finish that match properly. It was a lot about the wonderful personal skills of FaZe players.
Big struggles of big teams
Falcons gave their fans hope for a good Major after reaching the grand final at BLAST Rivals Fall 2025. However, the team lost to Spirit in the quarterfinal, including a 4:13 on Nuke.
FURIA were meant to win the Budapest Major — after claiming a few trophies ahead of this event. They played well in Stage 3: dominant wins over big teams: NAVI and G2.
Still, FURIA couldn’t do much against NAVI in the Playoffs. Their comeback on Inferno wasn’t sufficient.
MOUZ has won no trophies this season, but they used to reach the grand finals. In Budapest, MOUZ got blown away by FaZe. Fans certainly expected that quarterfinal to be more competitive.
Spirit couldn’t complete their mission over Vitality. They played against the best team in the world, sure. But crumbling emotionally is not a proper way to deal with such opponents.
Team Vitality made 2025 absolutely exceptional for themselves and for their fans. It’s really interesting to see what they are capable of achieving in the next season! Can they get the four-Major record of Astralis or even beat it?
