CS2 Major 2025 in Austin: What You Need to Know

We are less than three weeks away from the first CS2 Major of 2025, as all 32 teams will be traveling to Austin, Texas, for the BLAST.tv Major 2025. This is the first CS2 Major where we will see the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) introduced to determine Stage 3 and Stage 2 invites. The VRS is also used to identify teams that fall short of being seeded into those stages. These teams had to play in a qualifier in order to reach Stage 1 of the Major.

Previously, teams needed to participate in a Regional Major Rankings (RMR) qualifier to determine their stage seeding in the Major. With the new seeding system, top teams performing well in the current VRS are seeded directly into the appropriate Major stages without needing to play in an RMR qualifier.

Let’s take a look at the regional slot allocations for each stage:

Stage 3

· Europe – 6 slots

· Americas – 1 slot

· Asia – 1 slot

Stage 2

· Europe – 4 slots

· Americas – 4 slots

Stage 1 (Qualifiers)

· European Qualifiers – 6 slots

· North American Qualifiers – 3 slots

· South American Qualifiers – 3 slots

· Mongolian & West Asian Qualifier – 1 slot

· Chinese Qualifiers – 2 slots

· Oceanic & Southeast Asia Qualifiers – 1 slot

With this new format, we’re seeing increased representation from the Asia & Oceania region, which now has five slots—two more than the previous Major in Shanghai 2024, which had only three teams from the region.

Catch the first round of matches at the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Stage 1 when it kicks off on June 3rd, 2025, at 11 PM SGT!