Vitality Crowned Champions of the StarLadder Budapest Major — Their Second Major Victory of 2025

Team Vitality has secured the championship title at the StarLadder Budapest Major, defeating FaZe Clan 3:1 in the grand final. The series played out across Nuke (6–13), Dust 2 (13–3), Inferno (13–8), and Overpass (13–2). The MVP of the match was William “mezii” Merriman, who delivered an impressive 1.41 rating in the final.

The victory earned Vitality $500,000 and marked their second Major win of 2025. The French squad became the first team since 2019 to claim back-to-back Major titles. Team captain Dan “apEX” Madesclaire also broke his own record, becoming the oldest Major champion at 32 years and 295 days.

Vitality’s top performers throughout the event were ZywOo (1.38) and ropz (1.37).

FaZe Clan secured $170,000 for their runner-up finish. This was their first Tier-1 final of the year, but the team once again fell short on the Major stage — FaZe have now lost all three Major finals they’ve played in CS2. Across the tournament, FaZe competed in a massive 29 maps, with frozen (1.20) and Twistzz (1.17) standing out as their strongest players.

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The StarLadder Budapest Major took place from November 24 to December 14, closing out one of the biggest Counter-Strike events of the 2025 season.