BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Power Rankings: Are Vitality Champions-Elect?

The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is set to be the biggest Counter-Strike tournament of the year. Millions of fans will tune in to see their heroes on the server duke it out to secure their legacy in the game. After all, winning a Major is the most significant achievement players can achieve in the game, the Holy Grail that dreams are made of. With 32 teams set to enter the tournament over the next few weeks, it’s time to put them in order with our BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Power Rankings!

No matter the wins, this will be Vitality’s legacy

It’s almost paradoxical that six tournament wins in a row for Vitality puts the team under more pressure than ever to win the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025. Their sheer dominance of the team has seen the term “era” thrown around plenty, and for good reason. However, it would certainly take the shine off the year if they were unable to complete their crowning achievement and win a Major to top it all off. The anticlimax to end all anticlimaxes.

Right now, Vitality are undoubtedly the best CS2 team on the planet. Every time they come close to finally falling short, they find a way to win in the end. It’s what the best teams do, after all. That means as favorites, the pressure will be greater than ever. They’ve shown they can handle everything that comes their way so far, but the Major is something different entirely. If they can get the job done, we are surely discussing this roster as being among the greatest of all time.

NiKo: new team, same goal

Poor old NiKo. Every time he looks among the favorites to win a Major, either he or his teammates crumble under the pressure. Despite winning most of the game’s biggest prizes at this point, the lack of a Major is still the most significant blemish on a stellar and storied career. Now, he has reunited with m0NESY on Falcons in an attempt to finally snatch the greatest trophy Counter-Strike can afford him. New colors, same goal. In Magisk, he has a four-time Major winning player by his side to help him over the line, as well as five-time Major winning coach zonic. If the Major-winning Avengers can’t get NiKo his elusive prize, I’m not sure he ever will.

While Falcons come into the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 as second in our (and most) Power Rankings, they have shown themselves to be among the very few teams that can actually take maps away from Vitality. Finding that final push to actually beat them is another task entirely, but if anyone can do it, it’s these guys.

Potential BLAST.tv Austin Major underdogs

Over the years, the Majors have given us some truly great underdog stories. Teams that pop up out of nowhere to make a run no one expected. You only have to look back at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, where teams like Apeks, GamerLegion, and Into the Breach made a name for themselves with surprising runs. The Major is the place where anything and everything can happen – it’s what we love most about them! I should note that the gap between the top four in our BLAST Austin Major Power Rankings and everyone else is enormous. Regardless, here are some underdogs I hope to see make a splash in the States.

With s1mple looking better than expected at IEM Dallas for FaZe Clan, hopes are high that the CS:GOAT can find his form on Counter-Strike’s biggest stage of all. If he shows up in his best form, then this last roll of the dice from FaZe Clan could be set to cause quite a few large upsets at the BLAST Austin Major. Oh, and rain’s back, too, so we finally get to see how this iteration of the roster can perform when at full strength. It’s been a dismal 2025 for FaZe Clan so far. But it will all be forgotten if they can somehow pull off the miracle run to shock world and, whisper it quietly, win the Major.

In a similar vein, the BLAST.tv Austin Major is the final attempt at resuscitation for this NAVI roster. There’s obviously still a lot of quality in that team across the board, but results have been absolutely dire for some time now. There’s a very, very faint pulse, and I honestly think that nothing less than winning the entire thing will be enough to bring this team back to life. They’re a wounded animal at the moment, which could make them more dangerous than ever. If they bomb out, it’s curtains for this lineup.