Valve has announced the cancellation of the Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs) for the upcoming StarLadder Budapest Major, just days after the qualification dates were revealed. The change means that the 32 teams participating in the second Counter-Strike 2 Major of 2025 will no longer need to compete in regional qualifiers. Instead, teams will be invited directly based on their performance in the Valve Regional Standings (VRS).
The decision comes after StarLadder shared the dates for the Major qualifiers on June 6, 2025. However, the chosen dates conflicted with four other Counter-Strike 2 tournaments scheduled for October, creating a scheduling conflict for teams. The overlap left many teams facing the difficult choice of prioritizing the qualifiers over other important competitions, leading to significant community backlash.
Valve addressed these concerns in a statement, emphasizing that the goal of the VRS is to integrate community events seamlessly with the Majors. “At this point, we believe that a separate qualification process for the Major is both unnecessary and disruptive,” Valve said, adding that the MRQs, as a separate qualification route, were no longer needed.
With the cancellation of the MRQs, the 32 teams that will compete in the Budapest Major will be determined solely by their standing in the VRS. Invitations to the event will be sent to the selected teams on October 8, 2025, ahead of the tournament’s start.
The decision places even greater importance on the VRS, ensuring that only the top-performing teams globally will earn a spot in Counter-Strike 2's premier tournament. The VRS, which has been designed to standardize the qualification process, now serves as the definitive measure for a team’s eligibility for the Major.
While the change removes the MRQs as an option for teams to qualify outside of the top 32, it also streamlines the qualification process by eliminating the need for separate qualifiers. However, the decision raises questions about how regional slots will be distributed. Following the first two stages of the Austin Major, the Asia region earned an extra slot for the Budapest Major, shifting the Americas region’s allocation and sparking concerns over regional representation.
Valve has yet to clarify how these changes will affect the distribution of slots among the regions. Nevertheless, the focus remains on ensuring that only the most elite teams qualify, with a greater emphasis on their performance in the VRS system.
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