Starting January 1, 2026, the newest Service Medal will be available in-game.

Reach Global General (Rank 40) to reset your Profile Rank and earn (or upgrade) your 2026 Service Medal.

Good luck and have fun!

The StarLadder Budapest Major capped off an incredible 2025 for Team Vitality, who won their second consecutive Major Championship and the organization's third overall.

Coming into the Grand Finals against FaZe Clan, Team Vitality had not lost a map in the Playoffs, defeating The MongolZ and Team Spirit 2-0.

After losing the opening map, Team Vitality won the next three on Dust II, Inferno, and Overpass to take the series 3-1 in Counter-Strike's first ever best of five Grand Finals.


Today we are releasing the Budapest Champions Autograph Capsule, featuring Paper, Embroidered, Holo, and Gold stickers autographed by one of the players from Team Vitality.

Congratulations again to Team Vitality, champions of the StarLadder Budapest Major and both Major Championships in 2025!

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• Champions Autographs Capsule is now available for purchase, congratulations to Team Vitality!
• Highlight Souvenir Packages can now be acquired for the Playoff matches.

Only two teams remain in the StarLadder Budapest Major!

Team Vitality has yet to drop a map in the Playoffs, defeating The MongolZ in the Quarterfinals and Team Spirit in the Semifinals 2-0.

On the other side of the bracket, FaZe Clan defeated MOUZ in the Quarterfinals and needed all three maps to defeat Natus Vincere in the Semifinals, 2-1, to book their ticket to Sunday's Grand Finals.

Team Vitality are trying to win back to back Majors, a feat which hasn't been accomplished since 2019. FaZe Clan are trying to win their second Counter-Strike Major after being runners up in 2 of the last 3.

Counter-Strike's first ever best of five Major Grand Finals begins tomorrow, December 14th at 18:00 CET.

As we enter the final day of the StarLadder Budapest Major, tournament stickers are still available, with 50% of the proceeds going to the players, teams, and participating organizations.

See you tomorrow for the biggest Major Grand Finals yet!

Only 8 teams remain in the StarLadder Budapest Major, which means the Playoffs are upon us.

FURIA and Team Spirit finished Stage III with perfect 3-0 records. MOUZ, The MongolZ, and Vitality advanced at 3-1, and Falcons, FaZe Clan, and Natus Vincere survived with 3-2 records.

Playoffs begin tomorrow, December 11th from the 20,000 seat MVM Dome with the following Quarterfinals matchups:

• Team Spirit vs. Falcons
• Vitality vs. The MongolZ
• MOUZ vs. FaZe Clan
• FURIA vs. Natus Vincere

As the Playoffs get underway, there's still time to support your favorite teams. Team and player stickers are available, with 50% of the proceeds going to the players, teams, and organizations participating in the StarLadder Budapest Major.

And don't forget, there's still time to submit picks for the Pick'Em Challenge. All Playoff picks must be submitted prior to the start of the first Playoff match.

Good luck to the 8 remaining teams!

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• Improved shadow fidelity on view models.
• Added local client icon cache for inventory items.
• Fixed a case that caused a small number of users to receive an erroneous VAC ban. The bans will be removed.

Today we are introducing optional Supplemental Terms for releasing Counter-Strike 2 items in-game, found here, which allows the Counter-Strike 2 team to license items for a flat fee, found below:

• Weapon finish: $35,000.00 USD
• Sticker: $6,000.00 USD
• Charm: $6,000.00 USD

If a Steam account agrees to these new Supplemental Terms, all of the account's Workshop items can now be distributed where Community items were previously not available, such as The Armory. A Call to Arms-oryAs part of a future update, we are looking for weapon finishes inspired by two themes:

• Arabesque Art and Arabian Mythology
• Spy/Tech

We are also looking for stickers inspired by two different themes:

• Auto Racing
• Fruits and Vegetables

To submit weapon finishes and/or stickers to the Call to Arms, select the appropriate option using the updated Counter-Strike 2 Workshop Tool:If you already have Steam Workshop submissions you believe fit into these themes, you will need to re-submit the items and tag them using the options above.Finally, today we're releasing the Dr. Boom charm model, which can be painted and submitted for a future community charm collection. And we're adding a new Paint Kit type, Custom Paint Job Extended, which includes options for iridescence and other features.We're excited to see what you come up with!

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• Fixed a case of observers experiencing incorrect post-processing effects when switching observer targets.
• Disabled TrueView while watching a live playcast to match on-server observing experience.
• Fixed a wiggle at the end of SG 556 deploy animation.
• Stability improvements.

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• Fixed ability to plant C4 while standing on top of a teammate.
• Fixed a rendering bug on transparent charms attached to planted C4 or dropped weapons.
• Fixed a bug where Budapest 2025 Coin sometimes wasn't showing up in the scoreboard.
• Fixed a replay bug causing infinite shell casing effects.
• Updated the Budapest 2025 Imperial Esports sticker artwork.

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• The StarLadder Budapest Major Hub is now available. Visit the hub to purchase tournament items, play the Pick'Em Challenge and more.
• Purchase a Budapest 2025 Viewer Pass to receive an upgradable Budapest 2025 Coin. With an active pass, you can upgrade your coin and earn extra souvenir packages by playing the Pick'Em Challenge. Additionally, you will show up on the Active Pass Leaderboard where you can compare your Pick'Em Challenge performance to your friends.

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• Added new "Sticker Slab" item, a charm that seals any sticker and can be attached to weapons. The sealed sticker can be returned to your inventory at any time by cracking open and discarding the slab.
• Newly purchased Name Tag and StatTrak™ Swap Tool items can no longer be traded or listed on Community Market.

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• Increased the maximum effective sv_maxvelocity to 16,384 units per second. The default value of 3500 is unchanged.
• Fixed a case where clients would mispredict jump button presses.
• Fixed a case where clients would mispredict jump apexes.

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• Fixed skybox on Inferno that was blocking grenades.

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• Increased default bullet decal rendering distance.
• Glove models and animations in the UI/inventory now use Animgraph2, matching first-person in-game gloves.
• Enabled the pulsing light on the C4 view model.
• Updated the color scheme of Counter-Strike items in Steam Community Market and Web Inventory to match item quality colors.
• Performance improvements.