December 18 and 19 revealed the recipients of direct invitations to RMR and closed qualifiers before PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024. Some invites were so controversial that they caused confusion in the community. In this article, Bo3.gg examines the three main problems of qualifiers for the majors.
Invitations to RMR
Usually, there was half a year between majors in CS:GO, and with the transition to CS2, even a year. Meanwhile, developers give direct invitations to the top 16 teams of the last major. Is this justified? Maybe for the champion, but no more.
A major is a kind of World Championship in CS2. Let's draw parallels with the football system that has been working for years. There, the competition is held every four years and regardless of the results at the previous World Championship, the teams do not get any advantage and all play qualifiers. So why the opposite situation in CS2? After all, for esports, half a year, let alone a year, is a very long time.
Giving out invites for past merits, and especially securing them for players, is a big mistake. Take for example the invitations to GamerLegion, Guild Eagles, Into The Breach, and Apeks, who shone at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, but then were almost invisible throughout the year. Also ambiguous are situations when a club receives an invite simply by buying three players from a collective that made it to the top 16. For example, Team Falcons. This is absurd.
lu1gi_csgo on X (Twitter): How were these invites determined? That doesn’t seem right…
Espinozazguy1 on X (Twitter): Why isn't Mongolz invited to the RMR?
matos2197 on X (Twitter): Why Falcons?
minibeech03 on X (Twitter): Handful of the most solid new rosters done dirty. Not even get a chance to qualify? Liquid, Navi, Mongolz even they are higher ranked then NIP. Guild Eagles is a lower tier team. Not even in top 30.
soopz8 on X (Twitter): You forgot MOUZ and NAVI.
Without several stages of qualifiers, due to the large number of teams, esports cannot do without, but it is worth refusing direct invites to RMR. Teams should be invited exclusively to closed qualifiers, and the rest should be sent to open qualifiers. The invite system can be preserved, but they should be given based on the teams' positions in the current Valve ranking. But this ranking is a whole different story.
Valve Team Ranking
The Valve team ranking was created to fairly issue invitations to teams for closed qualifiers for RMR. The detailed formula for this ranking has been hidden until now, but one thing is clear for sure — its main criterion is the sum of prize money won by a team. This system can be easily abused.
A bright example is Virtus.pro, which for the last six months has hardly attended S-tier events. By performing and often winning or taking prize places at A-tier championships, representatives of the Armenian organization took third place in the Valve team ranking. Meanwhile, they surpassed teams such as Natus Vincere, G2 Esports, MOUZ, and Monte, which regularly participated in S-tier competitions. Another absurdity in Valve's collection.
READ MORE: FaZe Clan - Valve's best team of the year
Everyone from fans and analysts to professional players criticizes the Valve team rating formula — it needs to be changed urgently to prevent abuse of the system in the future. If the formula is put in order and the ranking becomes valid, then the invites to RMR and closed qualifiers will be fair.
Open Qualifiers
Open qualifiers for CS majors are a meme that got out of control. Time and again, cheaters participate in the qualifiers, violating all competitive principles. The anti-cheat system in online qualifiers is so terrible that you can't count on an automatic ban for players with third-party software. Another item in Valve's collection that urgently needs improvement.
What needs to be done?
First of all, open qualifiers should be conducted exclusively on platforms with good anti-cheat. Now, the next open qualifiers will take place on Challengermode, where it is practically nonexistent. Next, the formula for the Valve team ranking needs to be revised. Now, the key role is played by the amount of prize money won and there is no ranking by the importance of tournaments — this is a big mistake. Giving out invites to closed qualifiers and RMR based on the team positions in the top from Valve is possible, even necessary, but first, the formula needs to be optimized.
Majors in CS have been going on for many years, and the selection system for them is still raw. Valve should spend more time and effort improving the team ranking, the principles of invites to RMR, and open qualifiers. Only after correcting these shortcomings will the qualification system for majors become fair.
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