StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 confirms best-of-five Grand Final for first time in CS Major history

StarLadder has confirmed that the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 will be the first Counter-Strike Major in history to have a best-of-five Grand Final. The change comes after overwhelming community requests for a change to the format.

In recent times, big tournament organizers such as BLAST, ESL, and PGL have all committed to best-of-five Grand Finals throughout their CS2 circuits. All around, the change has been a significant success, resulting in more varied winners and more dramatic matches. Take FURIA’s reverse-sweep at the Thunderpick WC 2025, for example, which couldn’t have happened in the previous Major format.

In this regard, Majors had been left behind, with Valve seemingly committed to best-of-three Grand Finals for the foreseeable future. Now, StarLadder has confirmed this won’t be the case for the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 – a first in Counter-Strike history.

📢 You asked, it happened.

The Budapest Major Grand Final goes Bo5 for the first time in CS history!

💬 Tag the team who's build to last those 5 maps! pic.twitter.com/pRDPyYDwAT

— StarLadder CS2 (@StarLadder_CS) November 4, 2025

Despite the change, it appears that the upcoming Major will still feature best-of-one matches, which have been all but eliminated from the rest of the CS2 circuit. Whether this changes in the future remains to be seen.

The change to best-of-five Finals in CS2 Majors will likely be welcomed with open arms by the community, which has long held this as a big issue with the format of Counter-Strike’s most prestigious tournament. Seeing a best-of-three Final at the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 certainly felt odd after so many best-of-fives, but now, all is right again.