BLUEJAYS won the American LAN tournament Fragadelphia x Block 2025. This victory allowed them to make a significant leap in the Valve rankings. After winning the tournament, the team rose from 17th to 8th place in the American rankings, and from 67th to 30th in the world rankings.

One victory in a local tournament was enough for BLUEJAYS to rise above teams like Passion UA, fnatic, M80, ENCE, NAVI Junior, and others. This fact sparked discussions in the community, where professional players and analysts openly criticize the Valve ranking system. We have previously analyzed the VRS system and the impact of local tournaments on ranking positions. You can read more about it here.

    
    
    


    

        

            

                
Place
                
Team Name
                
VRS points
            
        
        

            

                
1
                
paiN
                
1537
            
            

                
2
                
Liquid
                
1448
            
            

                
3
                
FURIA
                
1355
            
            

                
4
                
MIBR
                
1264
            
            

                
5
                
Wildcard
                
1239
            
            

                
6
                
Complexity
                
1096
            
            

                
7
                
Imperial
                
1070
            
            

                
8
                
BLUEJAYS
                
1043
            
            

                
9
                
NRG
                
1031
            
            

                
10
                
M80
                
1017
            
        
    

Professional players expressed their opinions on this situation and the recurring issue with the VRS ranking. Swisher, who is currently playing for M80 at the ESL Pro League S21, couldn't help but comment on this, as he has long criticized the system and previously spoke about its problems. This time he again expressed his bewilderment at how winning a tournament and $5,500 can grant 37 positions in the VRS.

Using prize money as a metric has already shown that it doesn't work and will continue not to work. What's stopping organizers from holding tournaments every two weeks with a prize pool of 20 thousand dollars and bringing every North American team into the top 20? Literally nothing, except time and money.

Swisher

In addition to Swisher, VINI, a player from Imperial, also expressed his opinion. Recently, he and his team won the CCT Season 2 South American Series #7 and received $10,000 for first place, but they received much fewer VRS points.

What a ridiculous system? Why does a tournament with a prize pool of 10 thousand dollars on a tier-3 LAN give so many points? We just won 10 thousand dollars in an online tournament and didn't even come close to getting 40 points.

VINI

At this rate, BLUEJAYS might receive an invite to a major and closed qualifiers for various tournaments. Teams that constantly grind and play a large number of matches cannot afford such a leap, while here a team just won one local LAN and immediately soared in the rankings.