NAVI claimed StarLadder StarSeries Season 19 in Budapest, Hungary, beating Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in the Grand Final and taking the $200,000 first prize. The victory is the organisation’s first Counter-Strike championship since IEM Rio 2024 and arrives just ahead of ESL Pro League Season 22.
Thanks to their place in the Valve Regional Standings (VRS), NAVI started the event in the upper bracket. They dropped the opening map to 9INE but recovered to win the series 2-1 and move on. A straightforward sweep followed against a rebuilt Passion UA roster, which set up an upper bracket clash with Ninjas in Pyjamas.
NAVI handled NiP in the upper bracket final 2-0 to lock in the first Grand Final berth. NiP fought back through the lower bracket, beating B8 to earn a rematch, but NAVI closed out the Grand Final 2-0 thanks to a tight defensive performance and coordinated team play.
The win brings $200,000 to NAVI’s coffers, and halts a title drought that has stretched back to IEM Rio 2024. Earlier in 2025, the team failed to qualify for the LAN stages of BLAST Bounty Season 2 and BLAST Open London, and suffered an early exit at the Esports World Cup, which led to calls for further roster changes.
EliGE for iM would be almost a no-brainer for NAVI
➕Massive improvement to t-side firepower
➕EliGE is a system player
➕NAVI has the organizational structure (e.g. perf coach Urszula) to make EliGE actually a part of the team unlike Faze
➕blad3+EliGE
➖Big buyout? pic.twitter.com/q0FNs00vcO— Roope Leppänen (@RobuJohnson) August 30, 2025
With StarLadder in the bag, NAVI now turns to ESL Pro League Season 22, which begins on September 27, 2025. A strong run in that league will help secure a place in the StarLadder Budapest Major this November and stabilize NAVI’s position among the top 32 in CS2.
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