Final trio of teams officially secure Stage 3 at StarLadder Budapest Major 2025
Daniel Morris
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Passion UA, Liquid, and 3DMAX all locked in Stage 3 spots at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, tying things up in the 2:2 bracket. Under the most pressure of all, it was these three teams who withstood it in front of the Budapest crowd, keeping themselves alive for another stage at a minimum.
Passion UA win out battle of North America against M80
Image via StarLadder
Any Counter-Strike match between North American teams has the potential to have real “coughing baby vs. coughing baby” vibes, no hydrogen bomb in sight. But I have to say, Passion UA and M80 largely brought out the best in each other here, at least aim-wise.
As has so often been the case in best-of-threes throughout this Major, all three maps were required to decide this one. M80 won the opener on Mirage, a map they’ve made home turf in recent months. But their strength on that one map was a precursor to showcasing their evident weaknesses on the other two. When M80 started to feel the heat, Passion UA thrived. Shoutout to Grim in particular, who offered a reminder of why he was once among the top talents coming out of North America.
Image via StarLadder
Both Inferno and Train were pretty dominant for Passion UA. JT called rings around M80 IGL s1n, and always seemed to put his pieces in the right place. I also want to big up Kvem, here – Passion UA’s sole Ukrainian representative has the sharp aim you’d expect from a young Eastern European rifler, but plays the game without an inch of fear. He’s not afraid of dying, but won’t do so in stupid ways. So yeah, he finishes the series with more deaths than kills, but that doesn’t tell the story of the impact he had on the rounds in this series.
As Passion UA finished out the series 2:1, I couldn’t help but feel we saw the limitations of M80. A great Mirage, sure, but a map pool that is too shallow to really leave a mark when it matters. Nerves consumed M80 at the worst time, perhaps best illustrated by Lake‘s drop-off on the Train decider. No shade to Lake, either – at 21 years old, he is an immensely impressive young player, and these things happen on the big stage of the Major. Experience wins the day.
Liquid and Astralis run it back like it’s 2019
Image via StarLadder
I’m sorry, what year is it? Liquid vs. Astralis? At a StarLadder Major? Admittedly, that this game took place in the 2:2 bracket of a Major rather than Playoffs is far more illustrative of the level of these teams right now, but it was still a fun watch nonetheless. Especially for the Astralis hatewatchers out there – they were eating well here.
The Nuke opener felt like it was heading towards being a Liquid gigastomp, as they romped to an 11:1 lead in the first half. Astralis battled back with some fight of their own in the second half, but only managed seven rounds before Liquid finally converted what had long been an insurmountable lead. Astralis simply had no answers for the 24:9 ultimate, who looked the sharpest with the AWP that he has had in a while. This was amplified by the dev1ce disasterclass on the other side of the server. The Astralis legend managed just two T-side kills, and by the time he came online on CT, the potential for any kind of real competition in this match was long gone.
Image via StarLadder
Astralis had another chance to save their skin on Mirage, and an initial four-round haul at the very start of the game indicated better things to come. But the T-side duo of ultimate and NertZ eventually found their feet in the server, and Liquid took a 7:5 lead to the half. In the second half, it was EliGE and NAF‘s turn to drag Liquid over the line, eliminating their old nemeses from their first Major in years.
Astralis finishing 17th-19th in the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 is bad – there’s no hiding away from that. Will it be enough to kill this roster dead? Who knows. But the vibes in the final interview were not positive, and we could definitely be in for a brand-new Astralis heading into 2026. And for Liquid, their Major life continues. But if they play as they have in Stage 2 in Stage 3, they’ll be eaten alive by the big dogs.
3DMAX win non-contest vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
Image via StarLadder
I’ll be honest – I expected a little more from Ninjas in Pyjamas against 3DMAX. And not just because they killed my StarLadder Budapest Major Pick’Ems. Things pretty much collapsed for NIP when they failed to convert their pistol win on map one of Ancient, and it all just spiraled from there. It was a 13:3 loss to kick off the series, the French 3DMAX lineup flaunting their superiority round after round. And with Graviti going 22:9 in just 16 rounds of play, you begin to realize NIP why really never stood a chance in the opening map.
At a minimum, they made map two of Train competitive, falling 13:8 to 3DMAX. Crucially, though, they were largely chasing from behind. You can’t even accuse them of throwing a lead, as they barely held one to lose in the first place. “Limp” is how I’d describe Ninjas in Pyjamas here. Very little worked, and their firepower seemed leagues behind where it was when they started Stage 2.
Image via StarLadder
After a 2:0 start to Stage 2, dropping out 2:3 feels pretty unacceptable for NIP. Not only did they fail to win a single best-of-three to see it out, but they also couldn’t muster a single map win in any of those series. They couldn’t withstand the heat, so it’s time they got out of the kitchen. And for 3DMAX, I reckon they’ll fancy themselves to progress from Stage 3 in the next round. Qualifying from Stage 2 with a 3:2 record is not what they envisioned, and they really shouldn’t have been in this situation to begin with. But now that they’re warm, I can see them being a real problem coming into the next stage.
Following the conclusion of Stage 2, here are all the qualified teams heading to the next stage of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025:
Daniel is a CS2 esports specialist, and now channels that expertise to discuss the game online. Despite his knowledge of Counter-Strike, he wasn’t quite good enough to go pro himself.
