Blast Austin Major 2025

The Blast.tv Austin Major 2025 was the third ''Counter-Strike 2'' Major Championship and twenty-second ''Counter-Strike'' Major overall. It was being held in Austin, Texas, United States from June 3 to June 22, 2025, and it was the second Major hosted by BLAST, after Paris 2023. The tournament was held at the Moody Center, on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, and was the first Major to feature 32 teams, involving directly-invited teams and teams from regional qualifiers. It featured a prize pool of .

Team Vitality were crowned champions after a 2–1 victory over The MongolZ, their second title since Paris 2023. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut was named the tournament's MVP, receiving his second such award and becoming the third player to be awarded MVP in multiple Majors after also receiving it at the Paris Major.

Background

''Counter-Strike 2'' is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is the fifth game in the ''Counter-Strike'' series. In professional ''Counter-Strike'', the Valve-sponsored Majors are considered the most prestigious tournaments.

Austin was announced as the host for the first Major of 2025 during the BLAST Premier Spring Final on June 14, 2024. This is the fourth Major held in the United States and the first since Boston 2018. This is also BLAST's second Major after Paris 2023, the last held on '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive''.

The defending Major champions were Team Spirit, following a 2–1 victory over FaZe Clan at Shanghai 2024. They were eliminated following a quarterfinal defeat to MOUZ.

Talent

On May 30, 2025, BLAST announced the full talent lineup for the Major.

Format

Like previous Majors, the tournament involves Swiss-system group stages before an eight-team single-elimination playoffs. The Major involves an additional Swiss-system group stage to accommodate the expansion from 24 to 32 teams. 16 teams overall are invited directly to the Major, including 10 from Europe, five from the Americas and one from Asia, with the remaining 16 teams qualifying from a series of Major Regional Qualifiers. The stage that teams are invited to is determined by their Valve Regional Standing. Eight teams are eliminated from each Swiss-system stage before the final eight teams compete in a single-elimination playoff bracket to determine a champion. Matches in each group stage and the initial matchups of the Playoffs Stage is seeded according to teams' Buchholz score.

In the first three stages, all matches except for progression or elimination matches, which are played as bests-of-three, are played in a best-of-one format. All matches in the Playoff Stage are played in a best-of-three format.

Map pool

* Ancient
* Anubis
* Dust II
* Inferno
* Mirage
* Nuke
* Train

Teams

Europe

* Team Vitality
* MOUZ
* Team Spirit
* Aurora Gaming
* Natus Vincere
* G2 Esports
* Team Falcons
* FaZe Clan
* 3DMAX
* Virtus.pro
* HEROIC
* OG Esports
* Nemiga Gaming
* BetBoom Team
* Metizport
* B8 Esports

Americas

* Team Liquid
* paiN Gaming
* FURIA Esports
* MIBR
* M80
* Imperial Esports
* Complexity Gaming
* Fluxo
* Wildcard
* NRG Esports
* Legacy

Asia

* The MongolZ
* Lynn Vision Gaming
* FlyQuest
* Chinggis Warriors
* TYLOO

Qualification

The Major is the first to feature direct invites to the tournament itself since Berlin 2019, with additional teams qualifying from Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs), replacing the previous Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournaments. MRQs were held for Europe, the Americas and Asia, with the Americas and Asia being further divided into sub-regions. Six teams qualified from the Europe MRQ, three teams qualified from the North and South American MRQs each and a single team qualified from each Asian sub-region MRQ.

All sixteen teams who qualified from the MRQs entered Stage 1, with Stages 2 and 3 featuring eight directly invited teams based on their Valve Regional Standings (VRS) as they stood on April 7, 2025.

On May 21, 2025, BLAST announced that BESTIA, who had qualified through the South American MRQ, had been replaced by runner-up Legacy due to the organization failing to obtain enough visas for their complete roster. The decision was met with backlash from BESTIA, as well as from organizations and players attending the event. In a statement, BLAST reaffirmed the decision, stating that BESTIA had failed to meet the deadline set by the Major organizer and that the replacement had been approved by Valve.

MRQs were held online on the following dates:

* Europe: April 14–17 (co-organized with Relog Media)
* Americas: April 15–17 (co-organized with Liga ACE Esports for both North and South America)
* Asia: April 15–17 (co-organized with GG Media for China and ESN for Mongolia & Western Asia and Oceania & South East Asia)

Qualified teams

Source:

Team invitations

On April 7, 2025, Valve released an update to their Regional Standings (VRS), determining the invites for the Stages 2 and 3 of the Major as well as the Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs). Below are tables of each region's VRS standings as of April 7, 2025.

Stage 1

Stage 1 featured sixteen teams qualified from the Major Regional Qualifiers competing in a Swiss-system bracket. Teams were initially seeded according to their Valve Regional Standing, with further matches seeded according to a team's Buchholz score. Sixteen teams competed for eight Stage 2 spots, with all matches besides elimination and progression matches, which were bests-of-three, being bests-of-one.

Stage 1 was played from June 3 to June 6, 2025.

Matchup results

Stage 2

Stage 2 featured eight teams qualified from Stage 1 and eight teams directly invited based on their Valve Regional Standing competing in a Swiss-system bracket. Directly invited teams were seeded according to their Valve Regional Standing, while teams from Stage 1 are seeded according to their final placement from that stage. Further matches are seeded according to a team's Buchholz score. Sixteen teams competed for eight Stage 3 spots, with all matches besides elimination and progression matches, which are bests-of-three, being bests-of-one.

Stage 2 was played starting from June 7 to June 10, 2025.

Matchup results

Stage 3

Stage 3 featured eight teams qualified from Stage 2 and eight teams directly invited based on their Valve Regional Standing competing in a Swiss-system bracket. Directly invited teams were be seeded according to their Valve Regional Standing, while teams from Stage 2 were be seeded according to their final placement in that stage. Further matches are seeded according to a team's Buchholz score. Sixteen teams competed for the eight Playoffs spots, with all matches besides elimination and progression matches, which are bests-of-three, being bests-of-one.

Stage 3 was played starting from June 12 to June 15, 2025.

Matchup results

Playoffs stage

The top eight teams from Stage 3 advanced to a single-elimination bracket. Teams were seeded according to their final Buchholz score earned in Stage 3. Each match in the Playoffs Stage is played in a best-of-three format.

The MongolZ became the first Asian team to reach the grand finals of a Major following a 2–0 victory over paiN Gaming in the semifinals.

The Playoffs Stage was played between June 19 and 22, 2025, at the Moody Center.

Matchup results

Final standings

The final placings are shown below. In addition, the prize distribution, roster, and coaches are shown.

Notes

References

{{Professional Counter-Strike competition

Counter-Strike 2 competitions
Esports competitions in the United States
2025 first-person shooter tournaments