Best Stories From the CS2 Austin Major 2025
The first Counter-Strike 2 Major Championship of the year, the BLAST.TV Austin Major, just wrapped up over the weekend, as one of the most unpredictable Majors in recent memory, especially with the new 32-team format. Though Vitality, who were the tournament favorites and the undisputed #1 team in the world, ended up winning, the rest of the tournament was nothing short of memorable Major stories and heartfelt moments that only CS2 competition can bring out.
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The Greatest Major Player: dupreeh Retires From Counter-Strike
Right before the BLAST.tv Austin Major wrapped up, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen took to the stage and delivered one last emotional speech, announcing his retirement from competitive play. The winningest player in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive history in terms of prize money earned, dupreeh is also the first and only five-time Major winner in history, making him the greatest Major player of all time.
He was part of the four-time Major-winning Astralis dynasty dubbed as the “greatest team in CS history” and also the only professional player to have ever competed in every single CS:GO Major held, from DreamHack Winter 2013 to the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023.
After one final stint with Falcons, dupreeh has spent most of his time in 2025 as part of the analyst desk at a number of different events, offering his unparalleled insight on the game after a decorated playing career. His retirement made for one of the most bittersweet Major stories of all time, but a fitting end to more than a decade of legendary moments.
EmiliaQAQ Wins Everyone’s Hearts
Junjie “EmiliaQAQ” Tang was one of the undisputed fan favorites in the early stages of the BLAST.tv Austin Major, with his expressive personality and humorous antics. But perhaps the biggest reason the CS2 community truly found a new favorite player to support was from a social media post the Lynn Vision rifler made, telling the story of his career. In said post, he shared that he decided to pursue a professional career to help out with the burden his mother carried.
Though EmiliaQAQ and Lynn Vision ultimately exited the Austin Major in Stage 3, their collective journey won the hearts of the people as one of the ultimate underdog Major stories of 2025.
Falcons Severely Underperforming
It’s debatable whether or not Falcons getting eliminated from Austin before the playoff stage is a surprise, but the performance they showed is definitely one of the more shocking Major stories out there.
With the former G2 duo of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov joining their ranks for 2025, expectations were high, especially considering that they made a deep run together at the Perfect World Shanghai Major in 2024. Despite playing pretty much second fiddle to Vitality in the tournaments leading up to the Major, Falcons were still considered one of the strongest teams in the world and a sure lock for a playoff spot. What happened next was far from what anyone expected of them.
Falcons received a direct Stage 2 berth and were immediately humbled by both B8 and Lynn Vision in their first day of competition, suffering 8-13 and 9-13 defeats in the best-of-one matches. They stayed alive on Day 2 of Stage 2 with a 2-1 reverse sweep of OG, but all their efforts would come crashing down the very next day.
Up 18-17 in double overtime of their series-deciding Inferno game against MIBR, Falcons threw away a winning 5v3 post-plant situation, which gave their Brazilian opponents another chance at victory in triple overtime. Falcons eventually lost 20-22 on Inferno, sending them home from the Major with a disappointing 1-3 record in only Stage 2.
The MongolZ Go The Distance
In 2024, The MongolZ stamped their name in the history of Counter-Strike as the single greatest Asian team of all time. Their playoff appearance at the 2024 Perfect World Shanghai Major was already one of the most iconic Major stories of all time, and they just had to one-up said feat in their very next try.
The MongolZ went up 2-1 in Stage 3 before a tough 0-2 defeat to FaZe put them in a do-or-die spot for the final playoff slots. One world-class series from Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold later, and The MongolZ were back in the quarter-finals of a Major: this time at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.
They shockingly swept FaZe 2-0 and delivered back-to-back 13-5 beatdowns of paiN to book their ticket to the Austin Major Grand Final, making even more history as the first Asian team to ever reach that point in the competition.
The MongolZ took the first map, but ultimately could not defeat the most in-form Vitality roster ever and had to settle for second place at the Austin Major. Still, for a team that represents the flag of an entire continent as their greatest hope, The MongolZ proved again that their style of Counter-Strike can go toe-to-toe with anyone and everyone else.
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