Valve and FACEIT issue new rules on multiple team ownership for CS:GO Major

With the CS:GO competitive calendar ramping up in anticipation for the 13th Valve-sponsored Major, set to be hosted by FACEIT in London, the rule-book for the tournament’s qualification events has been released. This new rule-book features small, but important updates to how the event is set to be run. 

Originally reported by veteran journalist Richard Lewis in a recent video on his YouTube channel, the new sections of the rule-book cover match-fixing and multi-team ownership. The full rule-book can be found on any of the Minor qualifier pages on the FACEIT platform.

6.6 – Any form of collusion or match-fixing in order to manipulate the results in this tournament will result in disqualification and potentially a permanent ban from FACEIT. To report any match-fixing allegations, please send us an email with evidence to [email protected].

6.7 – Entry Restrictions
Teams and players should not have any financial interest in the success of any team that they are competing against. To participate in the 2018 Fall Major, players and teams are required to affirm that they have no business entanglement (including, but not limited to, shared management, shared ownership of entities, licensing, and loans) with any other participating team or its players. If teams or players have an agreement or business arrangement that may be of concern, then please reach out to the tournament officials for further discussion.

Later on in his video, Lewis states that these rules were not a FACEIT addition, with his sources having told him the decision came from Valve. This move would naturally cause an issue for the likes of RFRSH, who have stakes in Astralis, Heroic and GODSENT, and ESFORCE who have stakes in SK Gaming and Virtus.pro.

This would also cause a potential issue for teams owned by players who compete in different organisations, with the notable examples being Brazilian team Yeah!, owned by a group of current and former SK Gaming members, and pro100, headed up by Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko of Natus Vincere, who are invited to the closed qualifier of the CIS Minor. That is also not mentioning former players of RFRSH-backed teams who might still have stakes in their teams after they had left to join new rosters.

Esports Insider says: This is a good development in the professionalisation of esports, making sure that any potential conflict of interest is limited. How the companies and individuals currently involved with ownership structures in this way will respond is yet to be seen.