Pick’em Challenge for StarLadder Budapest Major 2025: Stage 1. Going for the Diamond Medal?
StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 is the fourth Major in CS2 history with a $1,250,000 prize pool and participation of 32 of the world’s strongest teams. Stage 1 starts on November 24th in Swiss format with 16 teams: the top 8 will advance to Stage 2, while the rest will be eliminated. Traditionally, VALVE has added the beloved Pick’em Challenge to the game, and we’re entering the race for the top diamond medal! To achieve this, you need to make at least 5 correct predictions for teams in each stage across the 3-0, 3-1, 3-2, and 0-3 brackets.
Predicting Stage 1 is always the most difficult task due to the large number of tier-2 teams that can always surprise. The BO1 format makes the process even harder, as losing a single map can ruin your 3-0 and 0-3 picks. Therefore, in addition to our own picks, we’ve gathered predictions from pro players, coaches, analysts, and other talents to collect as many opinions as possible, help you identify patterns, and ease the journey.
Pick'em from SIH
- 3-0 – FaZe, Legacy
- 3-1/3-2 – PARIVISION, GamerLegion, B8, fnatic, FlyQuest, Lynn Vision
- 0-3 – NIP, Fluxo
As always, we try to create our Pick’em by paying attention to several factors: opening matches, seeding (who can potentially face whom), and trying to think against expectations. The magic of the Major always brings its own adjustments and never goes without surprises. This time, we decided to apply this rule to the 0-3 bracket and not put Asian teams there, which the absolute majority will do (The Huns, Rare Atom, FlyQuest). As for the Australians, we actually believe in their advancement, because their last tier-1 appearance at PGL Masters Bucharest left a positive impression. They beat fnatic and 3DMAX, put up a good fight against Liquid and GamerLegion, and these are teams that regularly participate in major tournaments.
We also used a calculator that computed possible matchups under various outcomes, and NIP and Fluxo ended up with quite difficult brackets. NIP have been disappointing in recent tournaments, and the players themselves, even jokingly, pick themselves for 0-3. In any case, making a mistake in 0-3 isn’t as painful, so it’s better to focus on the advancement picks. Two teams with the highest seeding should finish without losses, where even if they slip up in a BO1, at least one of them should reach 2-0 and be the favorite in the decisive BO3.
Pick'em from Zeus and Kane
- 3-0 – FaZe, Legacy
- 3-1/3-2 – PARIVISION, GamerLegion, B8, fnatic, FlyQuest, NIP
- 0-3 – Rare Atom, The Huns
Next, we looked at the picks from PGL Krakow Major 2017 champions Kane and Zeus. Kane is currently the coach of Inner Circle and definitely has information about the form of Stage 1 Major participants. They clearly face them in practice, and his knowledge should help form a more or less objective picture. And we actually agreed on most choices, except for NIP’s advancement and the 0-3 picks. Apparently, the Eastern European legends don’t quite believe in the Asian region or, conversely, overestimate the strength of South America and the European region. In our view, their pick turned out to be that very “base” that the majority of the community will support. Partly a “perfect” pick if you believe that everything in Budapest will go according to plan and follow logic.
Pick'em from ohnePixel
- 3-0 – FaZe, GamerLegion
- 3-1/3-2 – M80, Legacy, B8, fnatic, NRG, NIP
- 0-3 – Red Canids, The Huns
The top streamer either decided to have some fun or completely disregarded results and didn’t believe in PARIVISION – a team on a 9-match winning streak. Jame with his pragmatic approach knows how to achieve results in Swiss format and is obligated to lead his team to the next stage. Also completely unclear is the faith in American teams, where there’s practically no competition and who time after time can’t show any results at LAN events. Picking NRG and M80 looks very strange, but this is a Major and anything can happen here – we’ve seen this many times before.
Pick'em from launders
- 3-0 – Legacy, PARIVISION
- 3-1/3-2 – M80, Lynn Vision, B8, GamerLegion, FaZe, NIP
- 0-3 – fnatic, The Huns
You can see that the commentator and analyst follows the tier-2 scene and is aware of Jame’s impressive winning streak with PARIVISION and even puts them at 3-0. Honestly, quite a realistic result, we especially like that he wasn’t shy about putting FaZe in 3-1/3-2. karrigan and company are clearly not at their peak form, and dropping one map is quite a realistic outcome, especially looking at recent tournament trends. The choice of fnatic for 0-3 also looks quite interesting, but if betting that one European team will fail and not advance to the second stage, NIP seem much weaker to us.
Pick'em from degster
- 3-0 – FaZe, M80
- 3-1/3-2 – Imperial, PARIVISION, B8, GamerLegion, fnatic, NIP
- 0-3 – FlyQuest, The Huns
The former sniper for Falcons and HEROIC is the only one who put Imperial for advancement to the next stage. It’s quite hard to explain his logic, because the Brazilians’ game hasn’t been clicking in recent matches and they’re losing even to tier-3 stacks. Apparently, he believes in chelo, skullz, and VINI, who were competing at tier-1 quite recently, but we all know that names mean nothing in Counter-Strike. Of course, their individual skill is at the highest level, but it’s quite hard to ignore team results. M80 at 3-0 – we’ll leave without comment. But FlyQuest at 0-3 seems like a clear mistake. After jks joined, the team really started playing much better and should win at least one match out of three.
Pick'em from ash
- 3-0 – FaZe, Legacy
- 3-1/3-2 – PARIVISION, GamerLegion, B8, fnatic, FlyQuest, Lynn Vision
- 0-3 – Red Canids, The Huns
The head coach of GamerLegion completely agrees with our choice for 3-0 and 3-1, which is pleasing and instills confidence in our pick. As we wrote, for 0-3 we decided to give free rein to experiments, so from a current form perspective, his choice is probably more correct. You might be surprised by the Lynn Vision pick, but this is an extremely cohesive team with incredible firepower that consistently attends top tournaments. Funny that ash didn’t put his own team at 3-0, but modesty is a good quality (or maybe it’s just a realistic assessment of their own strengths?).
Pick'em from liTTle
- 3-0 – GamerLegion, Legacy
- 3-1/3-2 – PARIVISION, FaZe, B8, M80, FlyQuest, NIP
- 0-3 – Red Canids, Fluxo
We decided to look at picks from a former pro player, coach, and current analyst. Here we saw an interesting mix with faith in GamerLegion instead of FaZe, unexpected faith in NIP and M80, and expectations of complete failure from two Brazilian teams at once. Well, such a pick has a right to exist, so we’ll be watching and drawing conclusions based on the results of the first stage.
Consensus from 7 Pro Picks
We compiled statistics from our picks and got these results:
- 3-0 – FaZe (5/7), Legacy (5/7)
- 3-1/3-2 – PARIVISION (6/7), GamerLegion (5/7), B8 (7/7!), fnatic (5/7), FlyQuest (4/7), Lynn Vision (2/7, but we believe)
- 0-3 – The Huns (5/7), RED Canids/Rare Atom/Fluxo (2-3 each)
We remind you about the “magic of the Major” and warn that the most popular picks are often doomed to fail. So maybe it’s worth thinking about B8 and putting them at 3-0 or removing them from this bracket entirely. We won’t do this, but you get the logic! Good luck with your Pick’em!
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.
