We wait for the Major the way football fans count days till the Champions League kickoff. These nerves, the clutches, the stories are the moments that stick with you for years and become CS inside jokes. It’s a chance to pick up PRO-level skills while watching CS titans in action, and ride the same hype with the entire gaming community along the way.
StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 became special for MOJAM for another reason too. We’ve been to arenas and top-tier CS events before. However, this year our product team went there almost in its entirety to experience CS the way fans truly feel it. Spoiler: the squad was genuinely blown away!
Major 101: The Basics, No Fluff
A Major isn’t just a “big” tournament. It’s the coolest Counter-Strike event of the season, where Tier-1 teams battle it out to prove who’s really the best. Long story short — here’s a recap of the main things to remember:
- A Major is Valve’s official CS tournament and the highest PRO tier out there
- ~$1.25 million prize pool, insane prestige. For CS players, this is the summit. Higher? Only sky, and even that’s debatable 😄
- Budapest hosted the last Major, with 32 teams from all over the world, including NAVI, B8 Esports, and Passion UA repping Ukraine
- 12 Ukrainians battled for the top spot as part of both our local teams and also foreign crews like fnatic and NiP
- The finale was watched by about 1.5 million people online, and 20,000 fans went full hype live at MVM Dome
How We Took Watching Major Online to the Next Level
For every Major, we run our special PROJamer League — an internal event where mojamers make match predictions, cheer for their favorite teams, and test their esports knowledge and intuition. The goal? Predict the tournament results. But for us, it’s not just about fun and friendly competition inside the team. This is how we live our user-oriented value by diving deep into the culture of the game and the mindset of the fans. These “straight from the source” insights help us better understand the community and build products that truly resonate with real players and fans.
The League features both rookies and true CS pros, and we’ve got quite a few of the latter on our team. Everyone has their own approach and strategy, but funnily enough, it’s usually the beginners who end up winning. It’s partly luck, and partly because Majors are always unpredictable, so even the most thoughtful analysis from PRO fans sometimes doesn’t cut it.
“Making predictions seems easy at first glance. But look closer, and it’s actually a tricky mix of knowledge and luck. Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d go with luck 10 out of 10 times, because even PROs with thousands of hours under their belt can’t guess it all. Surprisingly, most participants still rely on logic and analytics, even though every Major manages to wipe those strategies out completely. One of my favorite approaches I’ve heard from PROJamer League players? ‘I just pick the logo I like best.’ This time, the event that really stuck with me was NAVI vs FURIA. On paper, the Brazilians were way stronger, and the whole world was betting on them, but the Ukrainian legends showed true grit and took down the world’s #1 team. Moments like this get our teammates chatting non-stop, even way past work hours. Everyone’s watching, everyone’s cheering. It’s such a unifying vibe for the crew,” — Semen, our Content Specialist and MVP of the PROJamer League.
And guess what? The winner of the League this time was a rookie. Proof that sixth sense really does work!
“I was super excited to try my hand at this activity, especially since I’m just starting to level up my CS skills. It was the perfect chance to fully dive into the CS vibe. On top of that, it’s such a cool initiative to immerse the whole team in the gaming energy, get to know everyone better, and feel that MOJAM type of love for games. My secret weapons on the path to victory? Of course, intuition and gut feeling, plus a bit of research from previous tournaments,” — Masha, People Partner, who joined the League for the first time, instantly hit top-1, and scored a sweet bonus — official merch straight from the Major.
While most of the team were squeezing into their chairs at home during the tense finale, some were making predictions straight from the heart of the action:
“I really love this activity, I’ve always wanted to test my knowledge after working at a betting company. The last Pick’Em felt more like a lottery; no amount of knowledge could have helped. But what really stuck with me was making my final predictions live, right there in the Budapest arena,” — Kyrylo, Junior Influence Marketing Specialist and a true CS PRO with 11,000 hours played.
Mojamers at the Major Offline: The Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience
Everything hits differently: the arena noise, the crowd reactions, highlights without any stream delay. But better than any loud guesses are the real emotions of those who were actually there. In short, the mojamers who went to watch the final IRL in Budapest were left totally blown away:
“I honestly didn’t expect this kind of format, scale, or level of show. The Major seriously fueled my interest and love for the game, and now I want to be part of the CS community even more. It was pure hype. After the Major, I feel even more motivated to play, to develop products for this community, and just make it better overall. The fan energy is insanely powerful. I’ve never been to football matches or big sports events, and I have never really rooted for anyone. My Major experience was a total eye-opener for me. It felt a bit like being in love. Like going to a concert of your favorite band: you spend one night with them, get butterflies in your stomach, and then want to listen to their music all the time. It was exactly the same here. After each day of the event, I’d return to the hotel and scroll through photos of the players as I wanted to know the story behind each one. And of course, I immediately added Vitality and NAVI merch to my wishlist,”— Katya, Product Manager.
“I loved it. I felt like a kid caught up in the whirlwind of events 🙂 It was a completely new experience for me. I’d never been to an esports event before, and here I was straight at the top level. I couldn’t even imagine it being this awesome.On the first day, we were at the semifinals — around 8 hours of action on the arena floor, but it flew by unnoticed. Everything was well-organized and truly impressive. The games feel totally different live compared to watching on a monitor.Extra hype came from the fact that we were sitting in a section where, for each of the three games, everyone around us was cheering for the opposing team. The arena itself? Top-notch: beautiful, modern, with amazing sightlines from every section,” — Dima, Product & SC Process Manager MOJAM.
Major Highlights: Mojamers Edition
Nothing in the dry news reports can capture what happens in the most intense moments of the event. Let’s recap the best bits through our own eyes.
The Live Arena Vibe
Major isn’t just a competition — it’s a full-on show that knocks you off your feet in real life. Insights from mojamers bring 100% of the adrenaline straight to you:
“The most epic moment? The team introductions. Drummers on different sides of the stage, lights, music, and announcements like ‘Welcome on stage, NAVI!’ or ‘Vitality!’. After that, both evenings back in my room and during strolls with teammates, I kept repeating: ‘weeeelcoooome on staaage NAVIIIIIIIIII!’ The dopamine rush was absolutely unreal,” — Katya, Product Manager.
“The entrances of NAVI and Vitality on stage personally hit me hard: it was both epic and visually insane, with fire and drummers, and that feeling of actually cheering for these teams. Another moment that stuck? When the host asked everyone to pull out their phones and light them up — it turned into an incredibly energetic moment and made for an amazing shot,” — Anton, CRM Manager.
The Unforgettable Matches
“The finals stood out the most. Especially the Saturday final on December 13, NAVI vs FaZe. They were literally neck to neck; there was a moment at 11-11 where the teams kept catching up with each other, and the tension in the arena was off the charts. It was thrilling and emotional.Our team was constantly chatting, breaking down the match, cheering each other on through highs and lows, explaining player tactics, and even discussing skins.(Dima, special thanks to you. Sitting next to you was pure pleasure!),”— Katya, Product Manager.
Another standout memory was witnessing unexpected results live. Not through a screen, but right there in the arena.
“The most intense moments were the matches between Vitality and Team Spirit, especially the game that went into two overtimes. It felt like Vitality were about to lose, but they pulled off an incredibly powerful comeback, and the energy in the arena just exploded,” — Anton, CRM Manager.
Team-Building on a Whole New Level
One of the coolest parts of the event? Sharing the hype with people who became not just teammates, but friends.
“Beyond the Major itself and all the emotions around it, I really loved this team event format. Workations feel so much better when there’s a shared interest, a common goal, and new emotions. When we were discussing what we liked and didn’t like, we were jumping together with excitement over a triple kill from the right team, sharing snacks, following each other to grab water, and it all felt so effortless and natural. I think this ambiance is what I’ll take with me as a memory. In short, pure fire 🔥❤️,” — Dima, Product & SC Process Manager.
“I also want to highlight the trip with the team. We had such an amazing time together, got closer, met new teammates, and experienced this all as a squad. After the Major, I felt a super simple but strong urge: to sit down and play a match myself, to try it as if I were a CS player too. And now I have a small dream — to get an autograph from ropz, because he’s my favorite CS player,” — Katya, Product Manager.
Why the Major Is More Than a Tournament for Us
Attending Major isn’t just about the intense emotions, it’s a real work must-have. Here, we see our users live, feel their vibe, their passion for CS. This helps us understand the community better, what matters to them, and how to build products that truly resonate.
“It was really cool to observe our users in their natural environment. Now I have a clear mental picture of the CS players 😄.On top of that, the Major brought me closer to the game: I picked up on some gameplay quirks, strategies, and even a few mechanics. This will definitely positively impact our understanding of the market and our users 🙌,” — Dima, Product & SC Process Manager.
It was also a chance to meet the hardcore CS players live, the kind you hardly ever see in real life (and definitely not in this many at once):
“Those who were at the tournament are truly die-hard supporters, cheering hard for their favorite team. The only difference from football fans? Probably that no one was hitting anyone 😆. Also, I got a better sense of the male-to-female ratio among CS fans — an interesting stat to keep an eye on!” — Anton, CRM Manager.
What’s next? Enjoying the vibes, sharing memories with the team, and leveling up our work with the insights we gained…and of course, getting ready for the next Majors. See you in the arenas of Cologne and Singapore in 2026!
Stay tuned, because the MOJAM crew is going to bring even more hype this year. You definitely don’t want to miss it! 🔥
