tN1R Risks Missing Stickers at StarLadder Budapest Major 2025

If the rumors are confirmed and Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich joins Spirit, he still faces the possibility of not receiving stickers at the upcoming StarLadder Budapest Major 2025. According to the updated Valve Regional Standings (VRS) rules, a player must participate in at least 5 matches by October 6 to be included in the team's invited roster.

Spirit has only one tournament scheduled before this date — BLAST Open Fall 2025, where the team could play between 2 to 7 matches. After BLAST Open, Spirit will participate in ESL Pro League Season 22, but it starts in October, meaning its matches won't count towards the ranking at the time of the invitation.

Two scenarios in which tN1R will miss out on stickers:
Spirit fails to advance from the group stage at BLAST Open Fall 2025;
Spirit advances through the upper bracket of the group stage but loses in the first playoff match.
In both cases, the player won't meet the minimum match requirement, and in the October ranking, his spot will be taken by Zont1x . This would leave tN1R with only the role of a substitute player, even if he eventually competes in the major.

To ensure 5 matches, Spirit must either lose the upper bracket final (which would allow them to play in the quarterfinals and semifinals) or drop to the lower bracket after the first group game — this would also lead to five matches.

A similar situation occurred with s1mple when he joined FaZe Clan , replacing broky , and went to the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 but did not receive a personal sticker. According to Valve's rules, stickers are awarded only to players listed in the main roster, so broky was included in the capsules. Similar instances have happened before — for example, at the Shanghai Major 2024 with interz and Perfecto(RUS) . You can read more about this situation in our article.