FaZe Clan, NAVI and Team Falcons rounded out the top eight teams that made it to the decisive stage of StarLadder Budapest Major 2025.
All three teams coped with the pressure of the fifth round of Stage 3, winning crucial meetings in the Counter-Strike 2 tournament.
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The magic of Karrigan and FaZe has worked again
The difficult path of the FaZe Clan through the Swiss system continued with a fight with Passion UA, a team that was desperate to enter the main arena.
On Overpass, FaZe’s defense got off to a solid start, going into halftime with a 7:5 advantage. Passion UA was unable to win back these two rounds, so FaZe closed the map 13-11 and led the series.
By switching to the Mirage, Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski, a player who has been getting used to the top CS2 division for a long time, finally showed class. Several effective actions helped FaZe to go ahead again 7:5 by the middle of the match.
No matter how hard the Ukrainians tried, they couldn’t close the gap. FaZe Clan finished Mirage with a score of 13:11, won the series 2-0 and joined Team Spirit and FURIA in the playoff bracket. Karrigan’s magic is alive, and the clan is moving on.
NAVI sorted out the B8 without any questions
The reason for this victory over Team Vitality in the fourth round was NAVI’s meeting with B8— the Ukrainian derby for a ticket to the Budapest MVM Dome.
There are no surprises on Ancient: NAVI just outscored the opponent 13:4, taking a comfortable lead in the series.
At Train, it seemed that B8 was ready to fight — the outsiders made it to overtime, clinging to their last hope. At the same time, NAVI played a balanced game in both phases and closed the card 16:14 in overtime, scoring a 2-0 victory and guaranteeing themselves a slot in the single Major playoffs.
Team Falcons staged a reverse sweep against G2
A 2-1 loss to MOUZ in the fourth round put Team Falcons in an all-or-nothing position against G2 Esports.
In detail, it was a match between two Kovacs — Nikola “NiKo” from the Falcons and his cousin Nemanja “huNter-” from G2, who were fighting for the last place in the playoffs.
The fight didn’t go well for the Saudis at Ancient — G2 Esports confidently took the 13:7 card, bringing Team Falcons to the edge of the abyss. If the Falcons had lost another card, their major debut would have ended in nothing.
After all, the m0nesy team seemed to have been reborn on Inferno. The Falcons defeated their opponent 13:4, categorically equalizing the score and returning the intrigue to the series.
Dust 2 has turned into a real drama. G2 Esports took the lead by the 20th round, implementing a well-honed attacking strategy. Meanwhile, the Falcons defense did not flinch — the team won four decisive rounds in a row, closing the map 13:10 and completing an incredible reverse sweep.
Nicolas “m0nesy” Glavchev showed a transcendent game in order to drag the Falcons past G2 into the Budapest Major playoffs.
What next after Stage 3?
Taking into account the completion of Stage 3, all eyes are on the playoffs, where the remaining eight teams will compete for the largest grand prize in the history of esports Counter-Strike.
The quarterfinals of the StarLadder Budapest Major will start on December 11, 2025. The single-elimination bracket will feature Team Spirit vs. Falcons, MOUZ vs. FaZe Clan, FURIA vs. NAVI, and The MongolZ vs. Vitality.
The format is best-of-three in the quarterfinals, and the final will be best-of-five. The winner will collect a large fee of $500,000 from the total prize pool of $1.25 million. Matches and events are organized with intensity at the MVM Dome in Budapest, Hungary.
Full bracket of the playoffs: matchups, favorites and predictions
The eight teams have gone through difficult matches and are ready to channel their energy into further events, and the budapest major playoffs bracket itself has been formed — it’s time to figure out who will face whom on December 11 at the MVM Dome.
Team Spirit vs Team Falcons — that’s the main excitement and the intensity of the reaction in anticipation of the quarterfinals. Donk is in crazy shape, the sh1ro is as stable as a Swiss watch. With all this, Spirit has a problem.: they never beat the Falcons with the new lineup. NiKo and m0nesy will meet with the Russians for the fourth time in 2025, and the last three meetings ended with victories for the Saudis. Falcons received a free Nuke rush, based on this, Spirit will have to win on Train, Dust II or Mirage maps, where their chances are not maximum.
Vitality will play against The MongolZ in a rematch of the Austin Major finals. ZywOo is still the best player on most servers, Magisk and Spinx provide stable rifting. Mongol is a wild card: crazy mechanics, zero fear, the reason for this is controlez smashed G2 in Switzerland. If they are dangerous to anyone in best-of-one, then in best-of-three their small pool of cards will start to take its toll against such a well-trained team as Vitality.
MOUZ will face FaZe Clan on Friday, the opening match of the playoffs. The Hungarian hero torzsi will lead his team against the legend karrigan. MOUZ looks disciplined, FaZe looks unstable. However, the legendary names Brockie, Reina, and Ropza are capable of igniting and setting off the FaZe factor at any moment. MOUZ passed the stage confidently, losing only to Spirit, while FaZe barely made it through, playing all three stages in a row — 443 rounds, 13 cards. Fatigue can play a role.
FURIA, the only team from the Americas, will face NAVI for a ticket to the semifinals. FalleN has been hunting for the first Major since 2016, KSCERATO and yuurih are at their peak, YEKINDAR has been revived by the system. NAVI has shown glimpses with the newcomer makazze, but stability is lacking. The Brazilians passed the Swiss 3-0 — confidently, methodically, without failures. It’s hard to bet against FURIA right now.
Finals forecast: Most analysts see FURIA vs. Team Spirit in the best-of-five on December 14th. FURIA are the bookmakers’ favorites, Spirit and Vitality are slightly behind. MOUZ is a dark horse with a good ratio of coefficients. Based on this, tournament forecast: if FURIA holds their current form and FalleN does not falter in the final straight, the Brazilians will take the trophy. After all, Spirit, with their aggressive pace, may well change the vector of events – donk in the playoffs is unpredictable.
