NIP’s ascension of the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) in 2025 has been incredibly impressive to witness, but they’re now entering one of the most challenging parts of the climb.

The tallest mountains in the world all have their most dangerous places. For K2, it’s the Bottleneck; for Everest, it’s the Death Zone. In the world of CS2, it’s being ranked 17th to 21st in the VRS standings.

Latest VRS Rankings Put NIP in a Tough Spot

In the most recent rankings published on the 4th of this month, NIP holds the 19th position.

It has taken a Herculean effort by a team once considered one of the best to reach this point so quickly, given that they were unranked at the start of the year. But the real climb will now begin.

As their IGL, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer was quick to point out on X, the team is now too low to receive an invite for a tier one tournament, whilst also being too low to receive invites for some tier two tournaments.

Complexity rifler Danny “Cxzi” Strzelczyk echoed this sentiment, recalling how his team struggled when they faced a similar position in the previous season.

After navigating the unpredictability of online qualifiers and tournaments without the comforts of LAN gameplay, NIP now stands on the cusp of truly re-establishing itself as a tier-one team.

They’ve done everything right so far: built a solid team, impressed when opportunity came knocking, and even upgraded their team when allowed to do so.

Unfortunately, though, the next stage of the ascent is out of their hands.

As FlyQuest manager Chris “GoMeZ” Orfanellis also said in a reply to NIP coach Richard “Xizt” Landstrom’s tweet on the subject, NIP’s greatest hope of appearing in Counter-Strike’s biggest tournaments now lies with a team ranked higher than them deciding not to attend the event.

NIP would then receive an invite in their place, but that isn’t something worth relying on if they hope to achieve their goals of becoming a true contender once more.

A Glimmer of Hope: NIP’s Path to the Budapest Major

Every cloud has a silver lining, and NIP’s is that they are currently within invite range for the StarLadder Budapest Major later this year.

With invites for the second Major of the year set to go out on October 6th, tournament organizers will award 16 of them to European teams. NIP’s European VRS ranking of 14 puts them in a position to clinch a spot in the first stage.

Given that NIP have also impressed during their limited LAN fixtures this year, finishing in the top eight at PGL Astana and advancing from Stage 1 of IEM Cologne, there will be strong hope within the team that they can solidify their growth in the Hungarian capital later this year. They just have to hold onto their current place in VRS.

Currently playing in BLAST Bounty, where they will face the Brazilian squad paiN Gaming in the opening round, they have a fantastic chance to push their ranking even further.

If they can break into the top 16 in the tournament, NIP could finally crest the last ridge, bringing the summit of the VRS mountain — once a distant, shrouded peak — sharply into view.

Failing that, they should also receive an invite to FISSURE Playground 2. With plenty of VRS spots still to be filled, they are currently one of two teams next in line to receive an invite.