ESL has asked the CS:GO teams who will participate in ESL One: Road to Rio about a possible update to the coaching rule, according to a report by HLTV.
In the email obtained by HLTV, ESL gave a 24-hour deadline to teams to vote on the possibility of coaches being allowed inside the server during ESL One: Road to Rio and talking “without restrictions” to the players.
ESL will only make the change if all of the 56 participating teams agree with it. According to the email, this proposal came after Valve “reviewed additional feedback on the coaching rule”.
It would be the first change to the rule, since Valve limited the impact of CS:GO coaches in August 2016, limiting them to speak only during warmup, half-time breaks, and tactical pauses. At that time, a few CS:GO teams were playing without a proper in-game leader and instead used the coach to call the starts.
“With unrestricted communication with their players, coaches can currently function as a sixth player, and not solely as a source of guidance or training,” Valve’s page about coaching reads.
At first, the rule was applied only to the CS:GO Majors, but other tournament organizers also adopted it. With matches having to be played online due to the coronavirus pandemic, teams can bypass the coaching rule if the coach lives in the gaming house with the players.
ESL One: Road to Rio will kick off this week in Europe and the Americas. The series was created after Valve abandoned invitations for the Rio Major, which will take place in November and introduced a system where teams will have the chance to play for Regional Major Ranking (RMR) points instead.
Published: Apr 20, 2020 06:33 pm