Counter-Strike 2 invites you to make predictions for each Major tournament stage and claim Souvenir packages as rewards. The Pick’Em challenge is explained here.
Each CS2 Major has the in-game Pick’Em challenge for every player to join the prediction thrill and earn valuable Souvenir skins. At the same time, this initiative has the other side — it’s a direct support of Counter-Strike 2 esports.
During the StarLadder Budapest Major, the challenge follows the classic pattern. You purchase the Viewer Pass, place Pick’Ems, upgrade the event coin, and claim Souvenir packages. Let’s dive into each step of this process to highlight important details.
Viewer Pass at the Budapest Major
To join the Budapest Major Pick’Ems, buy the Viewer Pass inside Counter-Strike 2. The game offers two options.
- Standard Pass: You get the basic event coin and unlock the Pick’Em predictions.
- Premium Pass: Everything from the standard one, plus three Souvenir Tokens.
Which Viewer Pass to buy for the Budapest Major, Standard or Premium?
The cheaper choice, the Standard Pass, is a better buy for most people. You join the challenge, start making predictions, and Souvenir Tokens come to your pocket after completing four missions.
If you buy the Premium Viewer Pass for CS2 Budapest Major, you get three extra Tokens and can claim Souvenir packages regardless of predictions. It’s also a good choice if you like the risk/reward atmosphere of opening cases.
- Both Viewer Passes are not about financial revenue. Getting an expensive drop from a Souvenir Package is a big luck, even if you have all the possible Budapest Major Tokens. The Viewer Pass and Pick’Ems are more about being part of the community activities and supporting esports. Therefore, the Standard Pass is generally a better choice.
Three upgrades for the Budapest Major event coin
After activating your Viewer Pass, you receive the basic version of the event coin: bronze. It has three levels of upgrades, and each gives you a Souvenir Token.
- Complete four missions of the Budapest Major Pick’Em challenge: placing predictions for tournament stages and making correct guesses.
- Obtain a Souvenir Token for each coin upgrade: silver, gold, and diamond versions.
- Claim a Souvenir package for one Token.
The event coin itself is only a memorable item, even in the diamond stage: it’s untradeable. Tokens and Souvenir packages are more important results of coin upgrades.
Making correct Pick’Ems during StarLadder Budapest Major
Like with all types of CS2 esports betting, the Pick’Ems have no guaranteed wins. Upsets are very real in competitive Counter-Strike, and all Budapest Major teams can deliver big surprises. Even the best analysts can’t win all their predictions. It’s much better to consider Pick’Ems as an excitement boost during the tournament stages.
- Open the Pick’Ems section in the game.
- Place predictions before each tournament stage starts.
- Hope there will be no such surprises as Vitality losing to Legacy in their Round 1 at the Austin Major or Falcons getting eliminated in Stage 2 at the same event.
The best Souvenir packages to buy for your Budapest Major Tokens
There are seven Budapest Major Souvenir packages in CS2: for each map in the Active Duty pool. All of them have pretty good skins, but also, the drop rate for cheap common items is much higher than for expensive Covert and even Classified rarity levels.
- Overpass gives you the unique opportunity to add the first Souvenir skins to the market. Their price should be pretty high initially, due to the very limited offer: the map joined the competitive pool this season. Therefore, Overpass is arguably the best Souvenir package to buy for Budapest Major Tokens.
- Ancient and Dust II Souvenir Packages have valuable drops even in the Restricted rarity, such as USP-S | Ancient Visions in Ancient and M4A4 | Red DDPAT in Dust II. You still need to get low Float Values to make this drop pay for your Viewer Pass.
- Train is generally a good choice. The Classified skins here are pretty expensive, such as M4A4 | Hellish. Restricted drops are also a nice outcome.
- Mirage is about high risk and high reward. Only Covert and Classified skins are worth it: for example, Desert Eagle | Fennec Fox. Surprisingly, the Restricted Souvenirs are cheaper than the normal versions — perhaps due to the map’s competitive popularity.
- Inferno and Nuke can’t bring extreme revenue, but some drops are pretty solid, like the Restricted skin MP7 | Fade in the Budapest 2025 Inferno Souvenir Package.
Stickers of the Budapest Major 2025 CS2 teams
Inside the Pick’Ems section, you can buy Budapest Major stickers. They are available separately for each tournament stage: team stickers and autographs.
Depending on the match results and breakthrough performances, these tournament stickers can boost the value of your Souvenir skins significantly. The right combination should also consider visual appeal.
The Pick’Ems challenge is active throughout the entire Budapest Major, but you shouldn’t miss the timing for placing predictions.
