StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 Pick’Em Challenge – Stage 2. Will the Predictions Be Even Harder?
Failures in the Pick’em Challenge have long ceased to be surprising, but the first stage of the Budapest Major turned out to be one of the most unpredictable. First, NRG announced a day before the tournament started that nitro would be replaced by their coach, but we immediately knew that moving them to 0:3 was a mistake (as was the most popular choice of The Huns for 0:3). The main events of any Pick’em revolve around one thought: “Nothing obvious WILL happen.” And so it did – NRG with their coach finished 2:3 and had chances to advance. However, we underestimated this rule too much by putting obvious choices FaZe and Legacy at 3:0, who ended up at 2:2, and only FaZe crawled through to the second stage. Well, let’s proceed with predictions for the second stage, where the situation risks being even more sensational, but that only makes it more interesting.
Pick'Em Challenge from SIH
- 3:0 – FaZe Clan, Astralis
- 3:1/3:2 – PARIVISION, M80, Aurora, NAVI, 3DMAX, Liquid
- 0:3 – NIP, Imperial
Analyzing the results of the first stage, we concluded that the bracket turned out to be extremely unbalanced. For example, Imperial, to advance further, beat Rare Atom, The Huns, and NRG with a coach. While PARIVISION fought against GamerLegion, Legacy, B8, and M80. Agree, quite a different path for two teams from the first stage. Of course, the main reason is the BO1 format in half the matches, which most often confuses most predictions. The community is calling to abandon this format, but whether VALVE will listen – nobody knows.
Moving to the teams in the second stage, we want to recall such an important thing as “tournament form.” Half the participants have already spent enough time in Budapest and will approach the first matches warmed up, which in BO1 can play a decisive role. In this regard, Aurora was most unlucky, as they will face M80, and we believe that this match could end with a victory for the American organization. Therefore, we removed the Turks from 3:0, but they must advance further. You might be surprised by the FaZe pick for 3:0, but it feels like either karrigan will bring his guys to their senses, or they’ll be eliminated from the tournament. They have a comfortable opponent in the first round, and after a terrible performance, hardly anyone will believe in a confident 3:0 from them (which is what we need to go against non-obvious picks).
Even though Astralis doesn’t impress much with their gameplay, according to our predictions, they should have an extremely comfortable bracket, and NIP in the first round still seems very weak to us, even despite their 3:1 in the previous round. Chinese teams unexpectedly failed, and many even started talking about intentionally throwing matches. We don’t believe in that, but this time we won’t believe in TYLOO either. NAVI’s advancement raises the least questions; here they should have enough experience to pass to the next stage. PARIVISION also showed a great result and should believe in themselves, as should Aurora, who might stumble but will definitely recover if needed. Liquid and 3DMAX raise the most doubts (the French can generally contend for both 3:0 and 0:3 simultaneously), but as the first stage showed – in BO3, experience always decides. Therefore, we believe in the more experienced guys. Before, all teams were roughly the same level – now there are too many different weight classes, and we’ll leave all the “magic” for the BO1 roulette.
Pick'Em Challenge from Hawka
- 3:0 – 3DMAX, B8
- 3:1/3:2 – Aurora, M80, FlyQuest, NAVI, FlyQuest, Liquid
- 0:3 – Passion UA, Imperial
One of the few analysts whose pick’em worked in the previous stage, so let’s see what the British caster chose. There are definitely thoughts here that are similar to ours, for example, Imperial at 0:3 – they didn’t impress us either, but we absolutely disagree with Passion UA. This mix performed extremely successfully at the recent BLAST Rivals, where they fought against such giants as The MongolZ and Falcons. It feels like they should grab a victory in at least one match. Let’s see who’s right, but so far Hawka is going without misses.
Pick'Em Challenge from liTTle
- 3:0 – 3DMAX, Aurora
- 3:1/3:2 – Imperial, M80, FlyQuest, NAVI, B8, Liquid
- 0:3 – NIP, fnatic
Despite his pick’em not working in the first stage – he guessed 7 out of 8 teams that advanced to the second stage, which is a serious enough argument to pay attention to this choice as well. For some reason, the analyst still believes in the Brazilians, which we don’t share, but that’s why we gather alternative opinions. Honestly, we like the 3DMAX pick for 3:0 because the French are truly unpredictable, and we agree with 0:3. Moreover, in our “bracket,” NIP and fnatic should meet at 0:2, and one of them will “definitely” be eliminated. Belief in B8 and FlyQuest is obviously due to their previous performances and looks quite logical, but we bet on other guys.
Pick'Em Challenge from OverDrive
- 3:0 – Liquid, FlyQuest
- 3:1/3:2 – Aurora, M80, PARIVISION, NAVI, TYLOO, Astralis
- 0:3 – Passion UA, MIBR
One of the most unusual choices from the main insider of Eastern Europe. The Australians went to 3:0 together with Liquid, although the former have a debut game against NAVI, and Liquid in principle haven’t shown results in a long time. He’s also one of the few who believed in TYLOO, and it feels like this is that very “magical” pick (we approve of this approach). We also saw a new choice for 0:3 – MIBR, and considering the opening derby against Imperial, it looks quite controversial. But we like that the pick differs greatly from usual pick’ems, which means by all Major laws it has every chance of success.
Pick'Em Challenge from xKacpersky
- 3:0 – Liquid, FaZe
- 3:1/3:2 – NIP, B8, fnatic, NAVI, Passion UA, Astralis
- 0:3 – Imperial, MIBR
By established tradition, let’s look at the choice of actual Major participants. Last time it was GamerLegion coach – ash, who was left out of the second stage. Now we’re “marking” a NIP player who in the first stage put his team at 0:3, and now already believes in his own advancement to the top 16 (it seems we found a clue this time too – NIP is a rock-solid 0:3). Jokes aside, the pick turned out quite strange indeed, especially surprising is the absence of Aurora. Taking Imperial and MIBR for 0:3 means guaranteed elimination of one correct prediction. So far, there are more questions than answers here.
Pick'Em Challenge from Jerry
- 3:0 – 3DMAX, FaZe
- 3:1/3:2 – M80, B8, NAVI, Liquid, PARIVISION, Aurora
- 0:3 – Passion UA, TYLOO
Another choice of French for 3:0, which strongly resembles an attempt to catch luck by the tail, but at the same time proceed from more or less adequate outcomes. In this regard, we like the Astralis choice much more, especially since they’re not even in the regular advancement for many. But TYLOO at 0:3 appears for the first time, but gathering this material, we noticed that such a choice turns out to be quite popular. Apparently, the failures of Chinese teams a couple of days ago left a strong impression on the community.
Statistics on the Most Popular Picks:
- 3:0 – 3DMAX (3 votes), FaZe (3 votes)
- 3:1/3:2 – NAVI (6 votes), M80 (5 votes), Aurora (4 votes), Liquid (4 votes), B8 (3 votes), PARIVISION (3 votes)
- 0:3 – Passion UA (3 votes), Imperial (3 votes), NIP (2 votes), MIBR (2 votes)
Author: Alex
Alex is an author and esports observer with more than seven years of experience. He specializes in analyzing new releases in the world of computer games, gaming services, and in-game economies. Alex shares practical experience and an expert perspective on the development of gaming, helping readers understand complex mechanics and stay up to date with the latest news.
