Valve cancels MRQs for StarLadder Budapest Major

Valve has cancelled the MRQs (Major Regional Qualifiers) for the StarLadder Budapest Major, just days after the qualification dates were revealed.

As a result, the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) will be solely used to determine the 32 teams which qualify for the second Counter-Strike 2 Major of 2025.

The cancellation of the MRQ comes after StarLadder shared the dates for the Major qualifiers on June 6th, 2025. The dates chosen resulted in clashes with four other CS2 tournaments occurring in October, meaning teams would have to choose between the qualifiers or the competitions.

This led to some community backlash, further highlighting Counter-Strike 2’s increasingly cramped 2025 esports events calendar.

“One of the goals of the VRS is to standardise community events so that they can be integrated with the Majors,” stated Valve. “At this point, we believe that a separate qualification process for the Major is both unnecessary and disruptive.

“Therefore, we’ve made the decision to cancel the Fall 2025 MRQs. Instead, the 32 teams participating in the Budapest Major will be invited directly from the VRS.”

Instead of teams earning places at the Major through qualifications, all 32 teams will be invited to the event based on the VRS. Invitations will be sent to teams on October 8th.

While MRQs no longer offer opportunities for teams outside of the top 32 to qualify for Counter-Strike’s biggest tournament, the greater emphasis on the VRS ensures only the top teams from around the world are competing for the title’s biggest prize.

Valve is yet to share how the change will impact the distribution of Major slots for each region. Following the first two stages of the Austin Major, Asia had earned an extra slot for Budapest at the expense of the Americas, which had lost a slot.

StarLadder says it will reveal more information surrounding invite distribution after the Austin Major, which concludes on June 22nd.