Asia set to lose a spot at Cologne 2026 Major

The ongoing StarLadder Budapest 2025 Major is quickly turning into a one to forget for Asian teams. A dominant run from The MongolZ at Perfect World Shanghai 2024 and BLAST.tv Austin 2025 resulted in the broader Asia-Pacific region bagging a total of six slots at the Budapest Major. Both Chinese teams in Stage 1- Rare Atom and Lynn Vision crashed out 0-3 while The Huns recorded a Bo3 win over Lynn Vision before flunking out 1-3. While FlyQuest cleared the opening stage 3-0, the Aussies went down 0-3 in the second stage and TYLOO who started in Stage 2 could not convert their opening round win against PARIVISION, exiting the Major from the 1-3 pool, leaving The MongolZ as the only Asian team left at the event.

The conclusion of Stage 2 virtually confirms the slot distribution for the next Counter-Strike Major at Cologne in 2026. TYLOO's loss against Liquid in the 1-2 pool of Stage 2 marked the exit of the last standing Asian team from the initial couple of stages, leaving just one- The MongolZ who are set to start in Stage 3, as a result of which Asia is set to lose one spot at the Cologne 2026 Major. While Americas retain their quota of ten slots, Asian slots get chopped down to five, giving an extra slot to Europe.

The new slot distribution as per the results of StarLadder Budapest 2025 Major's second stage is as follows:

• Asia: 5 Slots (-1)

• Europe: 17 Slots (+1)

• Americas: 10 Slots

Stage 3 of the Budapest 2025 Major begins tomorrow with The MongolZ taking on Imperial in the opener alongside the MOUZ-PARIVISION clash at 05:30PM IST. This final Swiss system iteration determines the playoffs candidates entering the eight-team single-elimination bracket.