The organizers of StarLadder Major 2025 have revised the qualification system. The LAN group stage and regional qualifiers in several areas have been replaced with a single European online closed qualifier.
Changes to the qualification format
StarLadder has announced that the LAN group stage of the Budapest Major, along with the regional qualifiers for North America, South America, and Europe, will be replaced by a single European online closed qualifier. This qualifier will take place from August 13 to 17 and will feature 16 teams selected through the European VRS ranking system. The teams will be split into four groups of four, competing in a GSL-style format with BO3 matches. The top two teams from each group will move on to final qualification matches, and the winners of those matches will advance to the Major. They will join four additional teams invited via the Global VRS ranking.
🚨 Format Update for StarSeries 19
To avoid schedule clashes, all regional quals & LAN Group Stage are replaced with a single closed 🇪🇺 EU Online Qualifier (Aug 13–17)
LAN Playoffs stay Sept 18–21 in Budapest 🇭🇺 with following format:
💥 4 EU Qual teams
📩 4 Global VRS invites pic.twitter.com/d6B1O4hSJA— StarLadder CS2 (@StarLadder_CS) July 14, 2025
The organizers explained that this change aims to avoid scheduling overlaps with other tournaments, streamline event operations, and ensure a high level of competition during the playoffs.
Impact on the teams
These changes have taken away the opportunity for teams from the Americas to qualify through regional qualifiers — they will now have to rely solely on direct invites or future adjustments to the ranking system. For European teams, this is a chance to qualify through a single stage, but the level of competition will increase significantly. While the online format eliminates travel costs, it also reduces the LAN experience available to younger teams who could have benefited from it.
The Complexity manager responded critically to the format change, stating:
“Clearly this is a joke — they just don’t want to compete with the teams playing in the FISSURE tournament during the same dates?
Now around 12 teams lose the chance to play in a proper LAN event, especially those from outside the EU.
Organizers announce events a year in advance, teams plan to attend X number of tournaments, and then organizers cancel or drastically change the format — hurting teams that expected to participate or gain something from the event. This case is particularly outrageous, since two tournaments happening at the same time likely means the invite list was fairly long.
@CounterStrike how are you allowing this? How can this still be considered a tier-1 tournament with all these changes? They’ve clearly missed the deadline for submitting major changes to a tier-1 event just two months before it starts.”
What we know about StarLadder Budapest Major 2025
StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 is the biggest CS2 tournament of the year, scheduled to take place from November 24 to December 14 in Budapest. The event will feature 32 teams competing for a $1,250,000 prize pool.
Matches will be played across two venues: the group stage and Swiss stage will be held at MTK Sportpark, while the playoffs will take place at the MVM Dome. This will be the second Major of the year and one of the most anticipated events of the 2025 CS2 season.
