Valve has made a major change to the road to the StarLadder Budapest Major by scrapping the Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs).
Instead, all 32 participating teams will be directly invited based on the Valve Regional Rankings, the tournament organiser revealed today.
The move means teams will no longer have to compete in regional online qualifiers to reach the Major. Valve explained that a separate qualification process was “unnecessary and disruptive,” and that the VRS system is now mature enough to handle full seeding duties.
– One of the goals of the VRS is to standardize community events so that they can be integrated with the Majors. 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, Valve explains.
Originally scheduled for mid-October, the MRQs clashed with several other notable events, including Thunderpick World Championship, CS Asia Championships, and the Roobet Cup, sparking scheduling concerns across the scene.
The new system, Valve says, is designed to make the calendar more consistent and to better align third-party tournaments with the Major qualification process.
The invite date for the Budapest Major remains October 8, with further details on slot distribution expected after the BLAST.tv Austin Major wraps up.
