StarLadder Budapest Major 2025: Participants, Venues, Dates and More

The eagerly awaited StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 has officially confirmed all 32 teams that will take part following the October 6, 2025, Valve Regional Standings (VRS) cutoff.

With the ESL Pro League season 22 moving into its playoff stage, only weeks separate us from Counter-Strike's biggest event of the year. Several participating teams have also locked in their line-ups for the StarLadder Major, beginning preparation to bag a massive prize money of $1.25 million. This will be the second Counter-Strike 2 Major of 2025 and one of the biggest in recent history.

StarLadder Budapest Major 2025: All Participants Decided

For this edition, Valve and StarLadder have continued with the VRS-based invitation format. It removes open or closed regional qualifiers while encouraging teams for their continued achievement throughout the competitive season.

Some last-minute qualifications also include PARIVISION, who narrowly defeated BetBoom at Majestic LanDaLan Moscow, and Fnatic, who made the round trip across the Atlantic to reach the Fragadelphia Blocktober title.

In South America, RED Canids and Fluxo picked up their Major tickets with long runs in Circuit X South America Season 1. Here are the qualified teams:

SL Budapest Major 2025 Stage 3 Teams

The top-performing organisations heading directly into Starlader Major Stage 3 include:

• Team Vitality (Europe)
• Team Spirit (Russia)
• MOUZ (Europe)
• Falcons (Europe)
• G2 Esports (Europe)
• FURIA Esports (Brazil)
• paiN Gaming (Brazil)
• The MongolZ (Mongolia)

SL Budapest Major 2025 Stage 2 Teams

The Starlader Major Stage 2 teams include some big names such as NA'VI and Astralis-

• Aurora Gaming (Turkey)
• Natus Vincere (Europe)
• Astralis (Denmark)
• 3DMAX (France)
• Team Liquid (Europe)
• MIBR (Brazil)
• Passion UA (Ukraine)
• TYLOO (China)

SL Budapest Major 2025 Stage 1 Teams

Faze Clan's poor run will see them clash against lower-ranked teams in the Starlader Major Stage 1 teams -

• FaZe Clan (Europe)
• GamerLegion (Europe)
• Ninjas in Pyjamas (Europe)
• B8 (Ukraine)
• PARIVISION (Russia)
• fnatic (Europe)
• Legacy Esports (Brazil)
• Imperial Esports (Brazil)
• NRG (United States)
• M80 (North America)
• Fluxo (Brazil)
• RED Canids (Brazil)
• Lynn Vision (China)
• The Huns (Mongolia)
• FlyQuest (Australia)
• Rare Atom (China)

SL Budapest Major 2025 Venue

The MVM Dome in Budapest, Hungary, will host the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025. The MVM Dome is known for hosting large-scale international events. With a capacity of 20,000 spectators, it is perfect for a Counter-Strike 2 Major of this size.

Budapest's infrastructure, cultural richness, and European setting make it a very viable and ideal location for teams and fans to travel to. Budapest has hosted large esports events in the past, but this will be the city’s first-ever Counter-Strike Major.

The group stage of the event, however, will be hosted at the MTK Sportpark. It will host all three stages (1, 2 and 3) before the action shifts to the MVM Dome. The MTK Sportpark has a capacity of 2000 spectators.

SL Budapest Major 2025 Dates

The tournament will unfold across three stages:

• Stage 1: November 24–28, 2025
• Stage 2 (Challengers Stage): November 29–December 3, 2025
• Stage 3 (Champions Stage): December 4–8, 2025

SL Budapest Major 2025: Favourites and Dark Horses

Considering the lineup and current scenario, Vitality, MOUZ, and Team Spirit emerge as early favourites. All three are playing at a high level throughout 2025, as they are balanced in strategy and firepower. Then you have the Falcons, who recently finished in a podium place at the Esports World Cup 2025. G2 Esports have been in red-hot form in every other major Counter-Strike tournament.

PARIVISION and The MongolZ stand out as dark horses. Both teams have made rapid improvements in recent years and can look to upset higher seeds. The additions of several Asian and South American teams also show that competition outside of Europe is increasing.

If you liked our piece on the StarLadder Major 2025, then consider visiting our website for similar content. We recently covered the ongoing ESL Pro League's best players, which you can check out online.