Valve confirms Majors will features best-of-five finals starting with the StarLadder Budapest Major

Valve have confirmed today on X that Counter-Strike 2 Majors will now feature a best of five Grand Finals, starting with the StarLadder Budapest Major. The change sees the Majors align with numerous other S-tier tournaments in the circuit and sees Valve make their first significant change to the format of Major playoffs since they started all the way back in 2013 with DreamHack Winter 2013.

Many had previously lamented that CS2 Majors featured a less strenuous format than events like IEM Cologne and various PGL offerings, especially in the wake of a number of great five-map finals this year. For example, the recent PGL Masters Bucharest Grand Finals saw Aurora claim their first S-tier title of the year after a marathon five-map series against Legacy.

The change comes as teams are gearing up for the Major ahead of Hungary's first Major kicking off on November 24th!