BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025: Teams, format, favorites and more

For the first time since 2018, a Counter-Strike Major will be held in North America. From June 3 to 22, the BLAST.tv Austin Major will feature the 32 best Counter-Strike 2 teams in the world competing to raise the most coveted trophy in CS esports. The final stage of the Major, the playoffs, will be held at the University of Texas at Austin’s Moody Center.

In 2018 in Boston, a North American team, Cloud9, won a Major for the first time ever. A lot has changed in seven years, but a North American team still hasn’t won another Major. Will that change in Austin? To get you ready for the Austin Major, here’s an overview of the qualified teams, format and which teams and storylines to watch for.

Photo credit: Helena Kristiansson / ESL

Qualified teams

Stage 3 invitees

• Team Vitality
• MOUZ
• Team Spirit
• Aurora Gaming
• Natus Vincere
• G2 Esports
• Team Liquid
• The MongolZ

Stage 2 invitees

• Team Falcons
• FaZe Clan
• 3DMAX
• Virtus.pro
• paiN Gaming
• FURIA
• MIBR
• M80

Stage 3 qualifiers

• OG
• HEROIC
• Metizport
• Nemiga Gaming
• BetBoom Team
• B8
• Complexity
• Wildcard
• NRG
• Imperial Esports
• Fluxo
• BESTIA
• Chinggis Warriors
• Lynn Vision Gaming
• TYLOO
• FlyQuest

Format and Schedule

Photo credit: Adela Sznajder / ESL

Majors in recent years have included 24 teams, but the Austin Major has expanded the field and will have 32 teams competing for the first time.

Stage 1, which will last from June 3 to 6, will consist of half of those teams competing in a Swiss System format with teams needing to win three matches to advance to the second stage of the tournament. Eight teams will advance from Stage 1 to Stage 2, while the other eight will be eliminated.

On June 7, the eight teams advancing from Stage 1 will compete in Stage 2 against the eight teams directly invited to the second stage. This will again be a 16-team Swiss format tournament that will last until June 10 and teams will need to pick up three wins to advance. The top eight will join the eight teams that have been invited to Stage 3.

After a one-day break, Stage 3 will kick off June 12 and continue through June 15. This 16-team stage will -- you guessed it -- be a Swiss format tournament. The top eight teams from this stage will advance to a single-elimination playoff bracket.

The eight-team bracket will start June 19 and conclude June 22 with a new Major champion being crowned. Who will it be?

Tournament Favorites

Photo credit: Lee Aik Soon / ESL

Team Vitality is the overall favorite to win the Austin Major. They are the top ranked team in the world in Valve’s Global Standings. They have the best player in the world in Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut. They’ve won five big tournaments this year. Oh, and they’ve won all these tournaments without dropping a match as they have won 27 matches in a row and counting as they compete at IEM Dallas this week. Vitality are the team to beat.

Team Falcons are having a strong year. They’ve finished second to Vitality at IEM Melbourne and BLAST Rivals Spring as well as second to MOUZ at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025. They won PGL Bucharest 2025, and recently added former G2 star Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov to play alongside his former G2 teammate Nikola "NiKo" Kovač, who joined Falcons earlier this year. If there’s a team that can beat Vitality, it might be Falcons.

MOUZ and Team Spirit have also won big tournaments this year. Spirit are the last Major winners, having won the Shanghai Major last year and have one of the best young stars in the game in Danil "donk" Kryshkovets. MOUZ have never won a Major but they do have a former Major winner in Lotan "Spinx" Giladi, who won the Paris Major with Vitality in 2023.

Fan Favorites

Photo credit: Enos Ku / ESL

The crowd certainly will be cheering loudly for the North American teams at the tournament. Cloud9 famously won the last Major held in North America in front of an electric crowd. Unfortunately, there won’t be a crowd in Austin until the playoffs, so the question is will any of the NA teams get that far to feel the love?

Team Liquid appears to have the best chance of reaching the playoffs because they’re starting the tournament as an invitee to Stage 3. All they need to do is finish in the top eight. They made the playoffs at the Shanghai Major last year where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals, and their best result this year has been a top six finish at IEM Melbourne. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken is a Major champion with FaZe and a focal point of this team.

The other four NA teams are filled with familiar faces from Fragadelphia, the beloved grassroots North American tournament series, but no real contenders. If any of them make the playoffs it would truly be a feel-good story.

M80 will start the tournament in Stage 2, so there’s a fair chance they reach Stage 3, but their roster and results don’t inspire much confidence in a potential playoff berth. NRG has Captain America himself, Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella, who had an illustrious run with Team Liquid in 2019. Seeing him on stage would evoke a lot of nostalgia, but NRG and nitr0 are longshots as the last NA qualifiers. Complexity is based in Texas, so this really will be a special Major for CEO Jason Lake and Complexity who have been a longtime pillar of NA CS. It would be really cool if they can make it to the playoffs. And Wildcard is truly a wild card. They’re the newest NA CS org at the tournament and are best-known for being co-owned by popular streamer and content creator Amouranth. Wildcard made some noise last year at the Shanghai Major with wins over CS mainstays like Team Liquid, Fnatic and Virtus.pro. We’ll see if they can pull off some upsets in Austin.

Fun Storylines

Photo credit: Josip Brtan / HLTV

FaZe Clan might arguably be a bigger fan favorite than any of the NA teams in Austin. Despite having a mostly European roster, FaZe is a North American org, they have a North American player in Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, and their run of success in recent years has won them many fans in North America and around their world. Their charismatic in-game leader Finn "karrigan" Andersen is easy to cheer for, and they now have Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev as a stand-in on their roster. S1mple is one of the most accomplished Counter-Strike players of all time and once considered the best player in the world. It would be very cool if he and this FaZe team make the playoffs and perhaps even lift the Major trophy.

Similar to s1mple, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo is another legend of the game, and it would be fun to see how far he and FURIA can go as they carry the hopes of Brazil. They’re one of five Brazilian teams at the Major and might have the best shot out of all of them to make a run.

The MongolZ and Aurora Gaming are both fun stories because of what they represent to their regions. Mongolia and Turkey are not CS hotbeds, but The MongolZ and Aurora have emerged from those regions and the farther they go at the Major, the more they are bound to inspire players in those countries. Both teams are starting the tournament in Stage 3 which gives them a good chance to play onstage in the playoffs. The MongolZ finished top eight at the Shanghai Major last year and top four at IEM Katowice earlier this year, their most impressive accomplishment. The players on Aurora rose to fame with Eternal Fire earlier this year when they finished second at BLAST Bounty Spring, which included a victory over Team Vitality. That was Vitality’s last loss since their ongoing win streak and only loss this year (heading into IEM Dallas). What a story it would be if they make a run at the Major and beat Vitality again.

Lead photo credit: Helena Kristiansson / ESL