StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 Day 3: NIP and B8 progress, FaZe cling on

It’s hard to believe Stage 1 of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 is almost at an end, isn’t it? From tech issues on day one, to upsets on day two, it has already been a crazy ride. There’s just one more day of matches to go, after another day of Counter-Strike Major action. Three more teams progress, three eliminated – let’s wrap up the main talking points from today’s matches.

Three more teams secure Stage 2 at StarLadder Budapest Major

Ninjas in Pyjamas became the first team on day three of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 to secure their Stage 2 spot. After finding themselves in the 0:1 bracket, their comeback was comprehensive in the matches that followed. They wasted no time finishing the job in the best-of-threes, comprehensive in consecutive 13:5 wins over Fluxo.

Perhaps the strongest sign for NIP is the form of xKacpersky, who managed to go 40:17 across the two maps today. If they’re to have any hope of making a dent in Stage 2, they’ll need their youngest player to show why he’s so highly rated. On current evidence, I wouldn’t necessarily have them as my 0:3 pick next round.

It was then B8 who moved on to Stage 2, upsetting the odds to beat Legacy 2:0. This young team have always had the firepower to beat just about anyone, but it’s the mental game where they have so often fallen short. But here, they managed to keep their composure, even in situations where it looked like the match could collapse around them.

Although not at the top of the leaderboards, it’s npl who has impressed me most for B8. He’s come a long way from those rough NAVI days, and here, against Legacy, he was able to find the most impact on the team, with a server-high of +4.98% round swing.

Last up was Fnatic, who will consider themselves lucky to have faced an NRG side playing in the 2:1 bracket without their IGL. That’s not to say Fnatic had it easy, though – NRG were able to pick up an early map in this series, giving them a scare. But once Fnatic got rolling, the reverse-sweep always felt like an inevitability, despite NRG putting together good round hauls on both map losses.

FaZe barely live to fight another day

0.437 seconds. That was the difference between life and death for FaZe, who will count their lucky stars that RED Canids decided to self-destruct right on the cusp of victory on map two. After falling to a loss on map one, FaZe looked in serious danger of total collapse. A loss to RED Canids would surely have imploded this roster, perhaps even before the team hopped on their flight out of Budapest.

But at 12:11 to RED Canids on Nuke but with FaZe’s bomb planted on the B site, history found himself on the verge of completing an incredible 1v3. Just karrigan left on that side of the server, and history went straight for a stuck defuse. He managed to get it down to just 0.437 seconds before karrigan stopped him in his tracks, securing Overtime for FaZe. The cruelty of this moment is that history had both a smoke and a flash, and appeared to forget both in the stress of the moment. That’s what separates the men from the boys in this game.

And it doesn’t end there for RED Canids, who raced out to a 15:12 lead in the first OT. They required just one round win to see it out, but their T-side strategy was reduced to rushing down frozen on Ramp in consecutive rounds. Considering he was already close to the 40-kill mark at that point, what already felt like an awful decision at the time now looks downright neglectful with the benefit on hindsight. We see it so often with these lower-tier teams – they have the firepower to push the top teams to the brink, but lack the killer instinct to actually finish the job.

And when FaZe came back to win map two, map three of Inferno always felt like a formality. On the day, it was only frozen’s heroics that kept FaZe alive in the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025. Anything short of a drastic improvement elsewhere will ensure this is nothing but a false dawn for the team.

StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 Stage 1 Bracket and fixtures

We’re about to head into the final day of matches at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 Stage 1 – here’s how the standings are looking so far, as well as all the matches for tomorrow:

3:0 (Qualified)

• M80
• FlyQuest

3:1 (Qualified)

• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• B8
• Fnatic

2:2

• Fluxo vs. FaZe Clan
• NRG vs. Imperial
• PARIVISION vs. Legacy

1:3 (Eliminated)

• RED Canids
• GamerLegion
• Imperial

0:3 (Eliminated)

• Rare Atom
• Lynn Vision