Teams Write Letter to Valve Urging for Changes to CS2 Tournament System

In a significant move, twenty-two Counter-Strike organizations, including Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic, MOUZ and FURIA, have signed an open letter addressed to Valve, urging significant changes to the current tournament system. While these teams support Valve’s vision of a meritocratic esports landscape, they believe the current system is deeply flawed and threatens the sustainability of the scene.

The Open Qualifier Dilemma

One of the biggest concerns raised in the letter is the current reliance on open qualifiers (OQs) as the primary means for new teams to enter the ranking system. With VRS points being a prerequisite for teams to progress, those without them are left with no other option but to compete in OQs—events that are notoriously difficult to organize and often dominated by established teams.

The letter highlights the ecosystem's imbalance: Tier 1 events offer limited opportunities for lower-ranked teams, while Tier 2 events rely on invitations, leaving up-and-coming teams stuck in a "dead zone" with no clear path forward. The signatories urge Valve to introduce better incentives for smaller tournament organizers to host open qualifiers and ensure a smoother progression system for emerging teams.

Unstable Licensing Decisions

Another major issue raised is the inconsistency in VRS licensing. The letter points out that multiple tournaments in early 2024 have had their VRS status changed mid-event—some gaining the license unexpectedly, while others lost it after the tournament had already started. This unpredictability puts teams at a major disadvantage, as committing to a tournament without knowing its official status can be a costly mistake.

The organizations demand that Valve establish clear and stable licensing rules before tournaments begin, preventing teams from being left stranded due to sudden shifts in ranking calculations.

The Complexity of the System

While Valve's decision to make the ranking code open-source has been praised, the letter argues that its current presentation on GitHub is too technical and inaccessible for many teams and tournament organizers. Smaller organizations often struggle to interpret the system, leading to a chaotic flow of information where teams are left in the dark about the necessary steps to climb the rankings.

To address this, the signatories propose a centralized platform where Valve or a third party can clarify rules, answer questions, and provide transparency to both teams and TOs.

A Plea to Restore Open Qualifiers for the Major

The letter ends with a direct request to Valve: reintroduce open qualifiers for Majors. Allowing all teams, regardless of status, to compete for a chance at the highest level is crucial for keeping the Counter-Strike ecosystem alive.

The organizations acknowledge that Valve’s changes were made with good intentions, but they stress that without further refinement, the current system risks suffocating teams and tournament organizers alike. If Counter-Strike esports is to remain a truly open and competitive space, Valve must act now before it’s too late.

Read the full letter to Valve below:

"Dear Valve,

We all share your vision of “A Level Playing Field” — where every team and player has the opportunity to qualify for a Major based on skill alone. We appreciate your efforts to reshape the tournament landscape, but we believe the current system has significant flaws that are undermining this vision. As a collective, we offer this feedback to help strengthen the foundation you’ve built.

Open qualifiers: The Only Way to Enter the Scene is Through Tier 1

As it stands, if you have a core without VRS points, open qualifiers are the only way of getting points.

For tournament organizers (TOs), open qualifiers (OQs) are a major undertaking, simply due to scale. Running 512-1024 team brackets requires a sizable logistical and administrative workload to ensure competitive integrity meaning only the biggest TOs are able to organize these effectively. This creates a layered ecosystem: the biggest tournaments offer a small chance at a dream OQ run that catapults teams to relevance, while the tier below runs on invites only. Below that tier is a dead zone, where teams slowly run out of oxygen while waiting for the next tier 1 open qualifier.

As a result, any new up-and-coming team can only enter the ranking, paradoxically, through Tier1-events, and these are few and far between. Unless the ranking system changes, there must be stronger incentives for smaller TOs to run open qualifiers.

Backpedaling on Decisions

The status of a tournament's VRS license needs to be settled before the tournament starts. We’re only one month into the year and multiple tournaments have had their VRS status revoked mid-tournament while others have had it added mid-tournament. This uncertainty has major implications for teams and players — due to how precarious the situation is in tier 2, committing to the wrong tournament could result in a long stint in the dead zone. From a team's perspective it is crucial that these licenses are not given out on a whim.

Communication and Complexity:

Credit where credit is due — making the codebase open-source has given everyone the opportunity to fully grasp the inner workings of the ranking, allowing us to fully understand the effect of every single match.

However, the esports industry gathers people from all walks of life with a great variety in technical knowledge and work life experiences. Presenting this crucial information on a GitHub repository, written in a very technical way, negatively affects accessibility for smaller teams and players who lack the technical fluency to dissect the model.

If players cannot understand the steps needed to climb the ranking, or if a TO does not understand whether their tournament fulfills the license requirements, there needs to be a centralized forum/platform where questions are asked and answered. We understand that there is a cost to building and maintaining such a platform, and are open to working with a third party to do so. Currently, the scene is coping with the lack of clarity by sharing information in what has become a global game of telephone where, at times, teams are educating TOs on the current interpretation of the rules, mostly operating completely in the dark.

Valve, you made a bold decision to reshape the Counter-Strike ecosystem, but the system as it stands is not a level playing field. — to get there, you have to finish what you started. From your perspective this might just be a time period where you’re accepting flaws in the system until it irons itself out. To us, the teams, this time period could kill our Counter-Strike organizations.

To leave you with a short-term suggestion that would help us: add open qualifiers to the Major again. Allow all teams and players the chance to save their careers and dreams."

Signed by the following teams:

• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• Metizport
• Endpoint
• JANO
• ENCE
• MOUZ
• BIG
• HAVU
• EYEBALLERS
• IMPERIAL
• LEGACY
• FALCONS
• OG Esports
• 3DMAX
• 9z
• FURIA
• M80
• Monte Esports
• Fnatic
• GamerLegion
• 9INE
• Aurora

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Featured Image Source: CS2/Edited by Strafe Esports

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