5 of the Biggest CS2 Moments from 2025 You Might Have Missed

2025 was a crazy year for Counter-Strike, whether at the professional level, or in the game itself. We all know about Vitality’s dominance, shocking roster moves (Molodoy, anyone?), and Major storylines (FaZe s1mple?). But, there were storylines, updates, and other interesting moments that may have flown under the radar for many of you. Today, we’re going to take a quick look at some fascinating moments from 2025 that you might have missed.

Reduced Sound Delay

In May of 2025, Valve made a couple of updates to the game. One of the most important – and better – ones was the change to sound delay. Before this update, sound delay was a major factor in why the game felt quite poorly optimized. When you shot someone with an AK-47, for example, there would be a noticeable delay between the shots actually landing, and the sound they made. This led to the game feeling unresponsive, laggy, and generally frustrating to play when compared to its predecessor.

Here are the actual patch notes for this update:

• Shortened front end of the AK-47 fire sound.
• Reduced delay for body shot impact sounds from the attacker perspective.
• Body shot impact sounds from the attacker perspective will momentarily reduce the volume of weapon fire and ambience to help ensure feedback remains audible.

This update made the game feel much crisper. Gunplay felt a lot more responsive and snappy, and as a player you could almost feel your shots landing. It immediately felt closer to the responsiveness of CS:GO, and was generally well received by the playerbase.

Weekly Missions

Another update this time, but more of an experiential one. In the ‘Mission Possible’ update, also in May 2025, Valve released Weekly Missions. In their update announcement article, they stated that “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, can be completed for bonus XP. Each week you’ll get a new mission, and you can access your mission in the Main Menu and in the Play Menu.”

For the more casual playerbase, this offers a reason to grind the game. Being able to stockpile XP and spend it on cases, stickers, and skins is a fun way to incentivize players sticking to Valve-specific gamemodes such as Premier or Wingman. However, some people took issue with the update as it felt like the death knell for any hope of future Operations. But, if there is one universal truth in the world, it’s that Counter-Strike players are never 100% happy with an update.

Multi-Region Representation in VRS Rankings

Time for a slightly nerdier one. Last year, Valve made a significant change to the way that multi-region teams interact with the VRS system. Before the update, if a team had no clear regional majority, they could choose which of the viable regions they wanted to be a part of. Consequently, teams could pick the less competitive region to stand a greater chance of topping the VRS rankings. Valve fixed this by mandating that, if a team has no clear regional majority, they will automatically be placed in the most competitive of the viable regional groups. This might not be the most exciting thing you may have missed in 2025, but it’s certainly an important one for the health of the professional scene.

MongolZ Win Esports World Cup

In a year dominated by Vitality, and full of the Spirit and FURIA storylines towards the end, it was easy to miss the fact that The MongolZ finally won themselves a Tier 1 trophy. In August 2025, The MongolZ were able to defeat Vitality 2-1 in the Semis, and Aurora 3-0 in the Grand Final, taking home $500,000 and a true taste of top-tier glory.

This was a huge result for the lovable Mongolian lineup, as they were able to shed the weight of their reputation as playoff chokers. Buoyed by dominant performances from Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold and Sodbayar “Techno” Munkhbold – with a 1.44 and 1.33 HLTV Rating respectively in the Grand Final – Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren’s team were able to net themselves the trophy. 2025 was, without a shadow of a doubt, Vitality’s year, but this MongolZ victory in ESC 2025 was a joy to watch, and one that may have flown under the radar for more casual viewers.

G2 Win BLAST Open Fall

Rounding off the list with another surprising victorious run, Nemanja “huNter” Kovač led his G2 side to a well-deserved victory in BLAST London 2025. Beating FaZe in the Quarter Final and FURIA in the Semi Final without dropping a map, G2 headed into a tough Grand Final against an in-form Vitality. This final was one of the most entertaining of the year, going all five maps in a real war of attrition.

G2 took the first map – Dust II – in dominant fashion, closing out with a 13-3 scoreline. Vitality bounced back in significant fashion, taking both Mirage and Overpass 13-6. Just as all hope seemed lost, and Counter-Strike graphic designers across the world were preparing their Vitality victory posts, G2 won out in a slugfest of an Inferno, taking the fourth map 16-12. On the final map – Train – G2 proved that they had what it takes to close out a Bo5 Grand Final against the best team in the world, taking the map 13-6, and the silverware along with it.

This is definitely a Grand Final worth a rewatch, for anyone that did miss it. It was a real feather in the cap of huNter as a relatively new IGL, and refreshing to watch Vitality be taken the distance.

So, there you have it. A handful of moments from 2025 that you may have missed. It was certainly a fun year for Counter-Strike players and fans alike. We can only hope that 2026 continues to impress. In the meantime, if you’re looking to improve at CS2 so that your best moments never fly under the radar, make sure you grind out some of Refrag’s modes, like Xfire, Aimbotz, and Striker mode.