Natus Vincere Wins StarLadder S19, Ukrainian Tops Broadcasts

Budapest hosted the StarLadder StarSeries Season 19 finals past weekend, marking the return of the iconic Counter-Strike tournament series. The event stood out for two reasons: Natus Vincere claimed their first trophy of 2025, and Ukrainian emerged as the most popular broadcast language for the first time at a Tier-1 Counter-Strike tournament.

The StarLadder StarSeries made its comeback after a six-year hiatus, initially brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and later by the war in Ukraine. In January 2025, Indian company NODWIN Gaming purchased StarLadder for $5.5 million, announcing soon after that the tournament series would be making its return. This September, the organizers hosted the event in Europe, inviting eight teams to Budapest based on Valve’s rankings and regional qualifier results.

Despite a challenging season, Natus Vincere entered as the clear favorite and proved why. In the opening round, Aleksi Antti Kaarlo “Aleksib” Virolainen’s squad beat 9INE 2:1, the only series where NAVI dropped a map. From there, the Ukrainian powerhouse swept Passion UA and went on to defeat Ninjas in Pyjamas twice, sealing the deal in the grand final.

Natus Vincere at StarLadder StarSeries Season 19 / Photo: SLTV

Natus Vincere earned $200,000 for the win, pushing Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi even closer to overtaking Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev on the list of Ukraine’s most successful Counter-Strike players. For now, s1mple still holds the edge over his former teammate by $265,000.

You can learn more about the richest esports players across different games and countries on a dedicated Esports Charts page.

StarLadder StarSeries Season 19 Viewership Statistics

Overall, StarLadder StarSeries Season 19 racked up nearly 1.3 million Hours Watched, with peak hitting 92,270 live viewers. Unsurprisingly, the grand final between Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas was the tournament’s most-popular match.

In terms of peak viewership, StarLadder StarSeries Season 19 ranked sixth among all Counter-Strike tournaments in the series. The record still belongs to SL i-League StarSeries Season 3, which drew 424,400 concurrent viewers back in 2017 when FaZe Clan defeated Astralis in the final.

Interestingly, Ukrainian was the most popular broadcast language at StarLadder StarSeries Season 19. During the grand final, Ukrainian-language streams peaked at 42,500 concurrent viewers, the sixth-best result for Ukrainian broadcasts at Counter-Strike tournaments in 2025. While not a record-breaking figure, it’s important to highlight once again that Ukrainian became the most-popular broadcast language at a Tier-1 tournament for the very first time. Previously, it usually ranked fifth or lower.

The Ukrainian broadcasts’ strong reach was largely driven by Mykhailo “Leb1ga” Lebiga, who emerged as the tournament’s most popular Ukrainian community caster. French creator Lucas “Squeezie” Hauchard stood out as well, covering the matches of his team, Gentle Mates, who were also competing in the event and finished in fourth place.

Among the official channels, starladder1 on Kick pulled in the highest peak, hitting 16,400 concurrent viewers and setting a new record for the channel. Overall, Kick accounted for about 14.7% of the tournament’s total HW, nearly matching YouTube’s share.

StarLadder StarSeries Season 19 not only crowned Natus Vincere as champions but also highlighted the growing global presence of Ukrainian esports content. The tournament set a new benchmark for both competition and streaming engagement, driven by record-breaking viewership and standout community casters.