Astralis and Team Liquid, two of the most traditional organizations in Counter-Strike esports, are one loss away from being knocked out of the StarLadder Budapest Major.
Both of them joined the second CS2 Major of 2025 in Stage 2 and ended the first day on November 28th with a 0-2 record.
Here’s a summarized recap of Astralis and Team Liquid’s games on the first day of the StarLadder Budapest Major Stage 2.
Jabbi finished the first day of Stage 2 as one of the worst players. Credit: © StarLadder
In comparison to Team Liquid, Astralis have definitely given their opponents a run for their money at the StarLadder Budapest Major Stage 2.
They played Ninjas in Pyjamas in the opening round and were narrowly ahead in the second half of Nuke. But NIP struck five rounds in a row to reach the map point, and even though Astralis won a couple of rounds, NIP closed it out 13-10.
Astralis faced M80 in the second round, and after an intense back-and-forth on Ancient, the latter ran away with a narrow 13-11 win.
Although Astralis reached double digits on both maps, it’s worth noting that they’ve lost to two teams that came from Stage 1. The Danish team had a better season than M80 and NIP, but they didn’t show that in the server today.
Curiously, Nicolai “device” Reedtz, one of the best Counter-Strike players ever, had a terrible debut and ended the day as Astralis’ lowest-rated player (0.79 rating). Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard also had a rough day and finished just above device, averaging a 0.81 rating after the games vs. NIP and M80.
Astralis will definitely need device and jabbi to bring their A-game in order to survive Stage 2 and qualify for Stage 3.
If ultimate doesn’t step up with the AWP, Team Liquid will likely crash out of Stage 2. Credit: © StarLadder
While Astralis at least put up a fight against their opponents, Team Liquid had dismal performances against B8 (13-7 on Mirage) and especially PARIVISION (13-3 on Dust2), on the first day of the StarLadder Budapest Major Stage 2.
Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek’s troops looked incredibly disjointed and far from being the team they were in recent tournaments prior to the Major.
Even though Team Liquid looked off as a team, many fans and experts rightfully pointed fingers toward the AWPer Roland “ultimate” Tomkowiak. He had back-to-back bad games, missed easy kills with the AWP, and is by far the worst player of Stage 2 thus far, having posted a horrid 0.49 rating after these two games.
Team Liquid finished 0-3 at the BLAST.tv Austin Major earlier this year, so fans were hoping that they would deliver better results in the Budapest Major.
In order to survive the Stage 2 of the StarLadder Budapest Major, Astralis and Team Liquid will need to win three BO3s in a row in the coming days, starting tomorrow, November 30th.
Astralis will play first, against FlyQuest, at 11 a.m. ET / 5 p.m. CET. The Australian team, like Team Liquid, had an embarrassing display on the first day of Stage 2 and had no chance against Natus Vincere and 3DMAX. FlyQuest surprised everyone by finishing Stage 1 with a 3-0 record, but clearly, they will struggle in Stage 2.
Team Liquid, on the other hand, will take on MIBR later, at 5.30 p.m. ET / 9:30 p.m. ET. MIBR lost the Brazilian derby to Imperial in the first round and dropped to the 0-2 pool after a narrow loss to Passion UA.
Given how both FlyQuest and MIBR played on the debut, Astralis and Team Liquid can definitely secure their first win at the StarLadder Budapest Major Stage 2 tomorrow.
Also read: Team Liquid enters partnership with Duelbits ahead of StarLadder Budapest Major debut
Feature image credit: © StarLadder
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