Valve reportedly wants to introduce a ranking system to replace the CS:GO Major direct invitations. The system would use placings from two extra tournaments ahead of the second Major of 2020, according to a report by HLTV.
Valve expressed its wishes in emails sent to tournament organizers, which were obtained by HLTV. The ranking system would consist of a combination of points earned from the first Major—ESL One Rio Major in May—and two other events ahead of the second Major, which is set to happen in November.
Those three tournaments would reportedly form the rankings and the top-eight teams would be invited to the second Major as Legends. The next eight would be the Challengers. To complete the competition, Valve would use the Minor system, which gives two slots to each of the four regions—Europe, North America, CIS, and Oceania.
Valve already has several required conditions for the tournament organizers regarding the two additional ranking tournaments. The events would reportedly include a minimum of 24 teams and 16 of these slots would be available to teams coming from the ESL One Rio Major ranking, with the tournament organizers deciding the method for the eight remaining teams.
The seeding for these additional ranking tournaments would reportedly be done based on the ESL One Rio Major ranking. The events are expected to be held between July and September. Valve is willing to provide $250,000 for the prize pools, according to HLTV.
These two ranking tournaments, however, may clash with the summer player break set up by the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA), which is scheduled to be from July 15 to Aug. 15.
The last big change in the Major’s system happened at the FACEIT London Major in 2018. The bottom two teams in the New Legends Stage stopped receiving Challengers invitations for the next Major, forcing them to attend the Minor once again.
