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Some teams reached the Playoff qualification level super quickly, and surprisingly, Vitality is not among them. Spirit vs NAVI and FURIA vs VP: these upper matches determined the two first CS2 esports teams to advance to the Major’s quarterfinals.

The excitement becomes tangible at BLAST Austin Major 2025! The tournament reached its Stage 3, and the last portion of invited teams joined the competition. Most of the best players in the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports world are here, and they are eager to battle it through the Swiss-format rounds up to the Playoffs.

Eugene Bozhenko

Some of the favorites disappointed a bit. Team Vitality already broke one of their win-streaks — matches, so far. In the opening clash of the Austin Major Stage 3, Vitality lost to Legacy.

Four teams went through two rounds of Stage 3 with no losses, so they’ve formed two pairs in the advancement matches. Spirit faced NAVI, and FURIA played against Virtus.pro.

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This tournament stage features two elimination matches as well. Some pretty big teams are already there: Liquid, MOUZ, and paiN.

How to watch the Austin Major matches Spirit vs NAVI and FURIA vs VP: Stream

These upper matches happen at the same time, so the official YouTube channel broadcasts them via parallel streams. This was the practice with previous advancement finals, like at Stage 1 of BLAST Austin Major 2025, whereHEROIC and B8 rushed to Stage 2. They are not at the tournament, though.

The planned start time is at 1:30 p.m. ET (U.S. East), 10:30 a.m. PT (U.S. West), and 7:30 p.m. CEST (Europe).

Playoffs express! Spirit and FURIA hit the final brackets of BLAST Austin Major 2025 cover image

CS2 Falcons fail at BLAST Austin Major 2025. Eliminated from Stage 2

It’s not a situation fans want to see their team in. Despite being one of the tournament favorites, Falcons started their Major run with two losses. When each match was win or die, the team just could follow people’s expectations.

Eugene Bozhenko

Spirit vs NAVI: Map scores, details, and the result

It is an epic battle between some of the best CS2 esports teams. Team Spirit and Natus Vincere have a best-of-three (Bo3) match, and only one advances to the Austin Major Playoffs.

Spirit2:0 NAVI — Team Spirit win the series

Map 1, Anubis

NAVI had a decent start on Anubis. They won round 2 despite losing the Pistols. But after a few bad rounds, Spirit woke up and delivered an impressive series on the CT side.

The second half was back-and-forth. Team Spirit reached the match point first, and NAVI were really close to trigger overtime.donkwon a great 1v1 clash and let his team earn a score advantage.

CS2 Falcons fail at BLAST Austin Major 2025. Eliminated from Stage 2 preview image

Map 2, Train

It was a NAVI pick, but the game went so wrong for this team. Going to the second half with 1:11? That’s not how you would want to perform at a CS2 Major.

Team Spirit, on the other hand, looked pretty confident. With such an impressive round streak, they did not let this win to slip through their fingers.

Anubis stats, Spirit vs NAVI (Image via hltv.org)

Team Spirit advances to the Playoffs at the CS2 esports tournament BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025.

Natus Vincere has two more chances to do the same: in Rounds 4 and 5 of Stage 3.

Train stats, Spirit vs NAVI (Image via hltv.org)

OG and NRG clash at the CS2 BLAST Austin Major 2025 for a Stage 2 spot

It looked like Wildcard and FlyQuest got pretty passable opponents in the other two Round 4 upper matches. Two spectacular upsets ruined that impression.

FURIA vs Virtus.pro: Map scores, details, and the result

Both these teams can treat us to some excellent CS2! Here are the details of the BLAST Austin Major 2025 match between FURIA and Virtus.pro.

FURIA2:0 VP — FURIA win the series

Map 1, Mirage

Virtus.pro won the opening Pistols round, and that’s about it with their achievements in the first half and the entire match. FURIA entered beast mode, destroyed the economy of their opponents, and won one round after another.

The teams switched sides with 9:3. As Terrorists, FURIA just won the remaining four rounds.

OG and NRG clash at the CS2 BLAST Austin Major 2025 for a Stage 2 spot preview image

On their own pick, FURIA generally repeated the pattern of Map 1. They looked like a better team this time, and winning a few rounds for Virtus.pro felt like a big deal.

In the second half, FURIA continued their streak of won rounds and took the match to the logical end.

Mirage stats, FURIA vs Virtus.pro (Image via hltv.org)

The next match for FURIA is the BLAST Austin Major 2025 quarterfinal.

Virtus.pro play in Stage 3 for a chance to advance to the Major Playoffs.

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FaZe could not crash their way to Stage 3 of CS2 BLAST Austin Major 2025

Legacy could be the last opponents, but they interupted FaZe’s march. The other qualification match of this round is paiN vs Virtus.pro.

Matches preview: Before the BLAST.tv Austin Major and at it

NAVI and Team Spirit are not strangers to facing each other. One of the previous times was at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2025, where NAVI defeated Spirit in the group stage, but thenSpirit eliminated NAVIin the Playoffs.

Team Spirit and NAVI

Team Spirit entered 2025 as the champions ofPerfect World Shanghai Major 2024. Can they succeed in the first Major of this year?

They joined BLAST Austin Major 2025 with Stage 3 and won two starting matches: against paiN Gaming and Lynn Vision Gaming.

Train stats, FURIA vs Virtus.pro (Image via hltv.org)

NAVI had a somewhat down period. The team finished in thetop 8 at Intel Extreme Masters Melbourne 2025and PGL Astana 2025.

At the Austin Major, CS2 team Natus Vincere defeated Nemiga and 3DMAX — with some difficulties in the later match.

FURIA and Virtus.pro

FURIA has a couple of new faces in 2025, and the team is driven by the experience of the legendary FalleN.

Their recent results are not too impressive. FURIA reached the top 9–12 at Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2025. However, they were 4th atPGL Astana 2025, which had fewer top CS2 teams.

FURIA played through Stage 2 of BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, and they defeated B8, M80, and Lynn Vision Gaming to be in Stage 3. They lost to paiN in Round 2.

Quick advancement to upper matches happened for FURIA thanks to victories against MongolZ and Aurora.

Virtus.pro showed good but not really remarkable results recently. They lost to FlyQuest atIEM Melbourne 2025and finished 13th–16th. VP were 9th–11th at PGL Astana 2025.

At the Austin Major, everything goes right for Virtus.pro — at least so far. They won all three matches in Stage 3 against OG, B8, and paiN.

In Stage 3, VP defeated MOUZ and Legacy.

Elimination matches of Stage 3, Round 3

Two teams leave BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 after this evening.

The CS2 Major in Austin has its Playoffs stage starting on June 19. Only eight teams are able to compete in the quarterfinals.