StarLadder Budapest Major 2025: Vitality complete historic season with third Major crown

Team Vitality closed out the 2025 Counter-Strike 2 season in dominant fashion in Budapest, beating FaZe Clan 3–1 in the first-ever best-of-five Major final, securing their third Major title and a third Major MVP medal for Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.

The StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, held in Hungary from 24 November to 14 December, brought together 32 of the best CS2 teams in the world for the fourth Major of the new era and the 23rd Valve-sponsored Major overall. All stages were played in front of live audiences, with the Swiss-system group phase hosted at MTK Sportpark and the playoff stage at Budapest’s MVM Dome.

Vitality arrived in Budapest as defending Major champions after lifting the Austin 2025 trophy earlier in the year – and they once again proved to be the benchmark team of the scene. After advancing through the three Swiss stages, they dispatched The MongolZ 2–0 in the quarter-finals and swept Team Spirit 2–0 in the semi-finals before meeting FaZe Clan in a historic best-of-five grand final. Vitality prevailed 3–1, capturing their third Major title and becoming back-to-back Major winners in the CS2 era.

Individually, the spotlight once again belonged to Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. The French superstar was named MVP of the Budapest Major, his third Major MVP award – a new record in Counter-Strike history. HLTV’s post-event rankings placed ZywOo at the top of the tournament’s player list, ahead of Robin “ropz” Kool and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, underlining his status as the defining player of the 2025 season.

Behind Vitality, the final standings confirmed a familiar elite. FaZe Clan finished runners-up after another deep playoff run, while Team Spirit and Natus Vincere shared the semi-final spots to round out the top four. FURIA, MOUZ, The MongolZ and Team Falcons completed the top eight. All 32 participating teams competed for a prize pool reported at around $1.25m, with Vitality earning a $500,000 champion’s share.

From a broader scene perspective, Budapest reinforced two key narratives: the consolidation of a Vitality “mini-era” in early CS2 and the rise of a deep, geographically diverse chasing pack. FaZe’s consistency, Spirit’s continued threat around donk, and strong showings from Brazilian and Mongolian line-ups underline that the gap to the champions is narrow – setting up a compelling storyline ahead of the next Major in Cologne in 2026.

The event also delivered some of the biggest numbers of the CS2 calendar. According to Esports Charts and other analytics sources, the grand final between Vitality and FaZe peaked at around 1.5m concurrent viewers and generated more than 70m hours watched across all platforms, cementing StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 as one of the most-watched esports tournaments of the year.