Report: ESL given the first Valve Major of 2019

Valve has apparently selected the tournament host for the first Valve Major of 2019.

ESL may be the next organizer for the 14th Major in CS:GO history, according to a DBLTAP report. The timeline for the supposed ESL Major is around the same as IEM Katowice, which was hosted this year in March, so the first Major of 2019 could be going to Poland.

Related: Road to the FACEIT London Major: The format, schedule, and who’s qualified

It makes sense for IEM Katowice to be an ESL-hosted Major because it’s one of the few events in the ESL circuit that is streamed on Twitch. Coincidentally, ESL signed exclusive deals with YouTube and Facebook in the last two years, preventing broadcasting of English streams on Twitch. These deals were met with decreases in viewership, which conflicts with Valve’s philosophy of having Majors “freely available on the viewing platforms preferred by the CS:GO audience.”

If Valve were to be officially be given the Major in 2019, it would be the organization’s first Valve Major since 2016. In the past two years, the Majors have been awarded to other tournament organizers instead, such as ELEAGUE, PGL, and FACEIT.

Usually when tournament organizers pitch their ideas for the Major to Valve, it occurs around the time of the ongoing Major tournament. This was evident at the PGL Krakow Major in August 2017, where pitches were given to Valve by the organizers, according to the Major Selection Process FAQ. Now it seems that the developers have decided to coordinate the Major in advance to allow for more preparation for the next organization.