It took FaZe two tournament days to fall from the Budapest Major Stage 1 favorites to one of the teams in the elimination zone. There is no more space for errors, as each next step can be fatal.
After a normal tournament start, FaZe Clan surprisingly lost two matches in Stage 1 of the CS2 StarLadder Budapest Major 2025. Things that make the situation worse for the team and for the fans include the opponents’ level and the general performance of FaZe players.
The first win was over Lynn Vision. Considering the team got eliminated in Round 3, it’s not an achievement for FaZe.
The following matches were against NRG and Ninjas in Pyjamas. NRG have their coach replacing Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella for this CS2 esports event. A loss to such a roster can’t feel good. NiP have had little presence at tier 1 tournaments, and their placements there are not too high.
Dropping these supposed-to-win matches leaves FaZe Clan with no more space for misstep. They have two matches left in the Budapest Major Stage 1, and the community’s eyes are on these elimination battles.
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Match 1: FaZe vs RED Canids at the Budapest Major Stage 1
It’s an elimination match of Round 4. FaZe Clan and RED Canids have to secure two maps to keep battling in Stage 1 of the CS2 Major 2025 in Budapest.
Match Score | Map 1 | Map 2 | Map 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mirage, FaZe pick | Nuke, RED pick | Inferno, decider | |
| FaZe 1:1 RED | 7:13 | 17:19 | 0:0 |
Stay tuned for stats and details of the FaZe vs RED Canids match.
The first-ever CS2 Major for RED Canids
This team qualified for the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 thanks to their regional standings in the Americas. Despite playing in a few other qualifying tournaments, RED Canids never hit a Counter-Strike Major before.
Even their tier 2 and 3 performance is not too brilliant: 2nd and 3rd placements are the highest achievements.
With this being said, seeing RED Canids in Round 4 is already surprising. They defeated GamerLegion, and it’s a great result for RED Canids! As for losses, there was a 14:16 overtime against Fnatic and a 13:6 against Legacy. All these teams are strong opponents for RED Canids.
Dry FaZe without rain
Even putting the opponents’ level aside, FaZe’s performance was disappointing at the Budapest Major, at least in the starting rounds of Stage 1.
Losing Håvard "rain" Nygaard never felt like a good move for the organization. After two big tournaments without this Counter-Strike legend, it becomes almost disastrous.
- FaZe Clan had the last lucky chance to play with rain at the EPL Season 22, and they reached the top 4.
- At IEM Chengdu 2025, FaZe played two matches, lost both, and got eliminated.
- The struggles of FaZe at the Budapest Major weren’t on many people’s Pick’Em cards, but they are pretty real so early into the event.
Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski replaced rain, and it would be easy to blame him. However, the issue is somewhat deeper. Even much earlier this year, when Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski played for FaZe, he reported struggles of the team to recover from bad rounds.
At the Budapest Major, FaZe looked dry. The community loves this team for their innovative approaches. Finn “karrigan” Andersen is usually great at making fake moves on the maps, so that FaZe strike unexpectedly. That wasn’t the case at this event.
Specifically in the match versus Ninjas in Pyjamas, FaZe tried to follow pretty obvious patterns. Sure, they got severely punished for this.
The “FaZe factor” is still a great power! The team should reach their better form sooner or later, even if more roster adjustments are needed for this.
