Top maps at CS2 Budapest Major: Popular picks

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Professional Counter-Strike teams have specific strategies for choosing and excluding maps at Major tournaments. However, the data from the recent StarLadder event in Budapest might also offer useful insights for your own gameplay.

Major Counter-Strike 2 tournaments are the best way to see what’s currently working in the game, both in terms of team strategies and which maps are most popular.

The Budapest tournament differed from the Austin Major 2025 by including Overpass instead of Anubis. Train was featured as a map in a Major for only the second time, having replaced Vertigo late in 2024.

All map picks at the CS2 Budapest Major 2025: Swiss stages and Playoffs

Here’s a look at the performance statistics for each map currently used in competitive Counter-Strike 2, based on data from the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025.

CS2 mapsTimes played*Picked in Bo1Played in both Majors of 2025*Dust II311366Mirage30956Inferno28659Nuke241249Train24938Ancient18640Overpass14514Anubis–21

Dust II was the most played map at the CS2 Major in Budapest

While other popular maps at this tournament weren’t far behind, Dust II was still the most-played map in Budapest.

Dust II is a super popular CS map, and honestly, it’s easy to see why. But lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of people online saying it’s time to swap it out for something new. They’re definitely making their voices heard!

  • In the grand final, Team Vitality dominated against FaZe on Dust II. It became a turning point, as Vitality totally recovered after a disastrous Map 1, Nuke.

CS2 Mirage and Inferno are on the top, too

Inferno is still a favorite map at CS2 Majors, despite some players disliking it. The close quarters of Banana can be risky, but successfully controlling that area feels very rewarding.

  • Inferno featured a great recovery attempt for FURIA in their semifinal versus NAVI. That 1v3 clutch by Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo is already in the history books: he caught opponents running from A and defused at the last moments.

Many consider Mirage to be a very well-designed map. It was a popular choice among the best teams competing at the recent Budapest Major in CS2.

  • Vitality had a difficult start on Mirage during their semifinal against Spirit. They recovered and won the map in three overtimes. Spirit crumbled after that.

Nuke was the second most played map in best-of-one matches

Choosing maps for single-round matches is really important, because teams usually pick their strongest options – there’s no room for taking risks or trying to bounce back. Nuke proved to be a popular and effective choice for this! It also saw a good amount of play in longer series and even the final match.

  • FaZe defeated Vitality twice on Nuke: in the first round of Stage 1 and on the opening grand final map.

Ancient and Overpass are in danger

These two maps weren’t played very often. Typically, Valve updates the official ‘Active Duty’ map pool after a major Counter-Strike tournament, swapping out the least popular maps. This is what happened with Vertigo.

Overpass became a standard competitive map in Counter-Strike 2 around mid-2025, making it very unlikely to be removed. However, Ancient could be taken out of the map rotation.

  • Overpass was picked in the Playoffs only once: as Map 4 in the grand final. Vitality delivered their dominant performance over FaZe there.
  • Ancient was also played in the final brackets once. NAVI defeated FaZe on it: they lost two other maps, though.

Throughout the Budapest Major Playoffs, the official broadcast frequently showed fans in the audience. A popular request from the crowd was to bring back the Cobblestone map. If Valve adds Cobblestone to CS2, they should aim to do so in an update before the 2026 esports season.

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2025-12-15 19:12