All 19 rookies at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025

Out of all the 160 players attending the upcoming StarLadder Budapest Major, 19 players will be playing their first Counter-Strike Major ever. Twelve of the 32 teams in attendance have at least one rookie on their roster.

The list of rookies includes only one American: Zack "XotiC" Elshani, who's been plying his trade for NRG following a long hiatus from competition.

Without further ado, here are all the 19 rookies at the StarLadder Budapest Major.

Rookies in Stage 1

Unsurprisingly, the majority of Major rookies will start the competition in Stage 1, which features more tier-two teams than tier-one. PARIVISION have more rookies than any other team, as Dzhami "Jame" Ali is the only veteran on the roster.

Rookies in Stage 2

There are only three rookies in Stage 2, which is fewer than what we had at the BLAST.tv Austin Major (five). And, one of them is Vladyslav "Kvem" Korol, the Ukrainian rifler playing with the former Complexity core on Passion UA.

Rookies in Stage 3

And, just like at the BLAST.tv Austin Major, there's only one rookie on Stage 3 of the StarLadder Budapest Major: the young superstar Maxim "kyousuke" Lukin.

Falcons paid €2 million to sign kyousuke from Spirit Academy after their disastrous run at the BLAST.tv Austin Major. The Saudi-backed team haven't won any tournament since picking kyousuke, but they're constantly making deep runs, and he's adapting well to tier-one.

These are all the players who will make their Major debut at the StarLadder Budapest Major.

The list of rookies attending the second Major of 2025 is considerably smaller than the BLAST.tv Austin Major, as 46 new players flew to the United States to attend their first Major ever in June.

Dust2.us sincerely wishes all the rookies good luck at the StarLadder Budapest Major. Stage 1 will kick off on November 24th.