Valve, the creator of FPS game franchise Counter-Strike, has announced a set of new rules related to hosting competitive CS2 events which will come into effect from 2025.
According to Valve, the new rules include changes in the number of teams directly invited to events, enforcing deadlines for tournament organisers to announce events, and defining events considered in Valve’s official rankings.
In a blog post titled ‘Open Season‘, Valve explained that the main goal of the new rules is to streamline the CS2 ecosystem and “ensure that professional Counter-Strike remains an open sport, where teams are only limited by their ability.”
This is a further expansion of changes announced in 2023, that notably put an end to the exclusivity deals in CS, such as the Louvre Agreement.
Valve has stated that all CS2 events will be either ranked or unranked, with ranked tournaments being events that are attributed towards Valve’s rankings. These, in turn, lead to Major invitations. The unranked events have, however, a definitive prize pool rule that states that the total compensation for an unranked event must not exceed $100,000 (~£76,900). If a company operates more than one unranked tournament in a year, the total compensation for all events will not exceed $250,000 (~£191,700).
The additions to the rules announced this July include the formal definition of ‘tiers’. While esports fans and organisers have adopted the terminology to differentiate events by prize pool and size, this is the first time Valve has officially stated that events will be divided this way.
Tier 1 event organisers will have to invite teams from the top rankings of the Valve Regional Standings and must invite at least 16 teams that will feed eight teams to the main event. This means that high ranked teams will always be invited to Tier 1 Ranked events.
Tier 1 event organisers will also have to invite 1.5 times the number of qualified teams that will appear at the main event. Also, for any tournament with eight or more rosters at the main event, organisers can invite two teams as Wildcards, as well as two more for every eight teams. Wildcard teams will not be able to directly join the main event, though.
Interestingly, organisers can also host one Wildcard event for every three Tier 1 events created. These events can feature an unlimited number of Wildcard invitations and there are no minimum number of rosters participating in the main event.
The last major change is that all tournaments will need to be announced more in advance than previously done.
Valve stated that for events starting in 2025, the announcement date deadline is September 1st, 2024. For events in 2026, the deadline is January 1st, 2025, and for events in 2027, the announcement has to be made two years ahead of the event. This aims to ensure the stability of the event calendar and filter out any ad hoc events that might happen, for better or for worse.
