CSGO Fall Major canceled as Valve plans transition to Counter-Strike 2 after Paris event

Valve officially announced CSGO will be retired for official events after over a decade of being one of the world’s biggest esports. The upcoming Paris Major will be the last dance for CSGO’s best competitors on the big stage before the swap to the new and improved Counter-Strike 2.

Counter-Strike is one of the original greats within esports. Maps from the original 1999 release are still being used today, and the sport has gone from LAN parties on 480p monitors to being broadcast from some of the biggest arenas in the world to millions of live viewers.

Through its long and prosperous life cycle, CSGO has created some fantastic storylines and built up players like Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz as some of the greatest competitors in esports. Though this day had to come eventually, the announcement that CSGO will be retired soon in favor of Counter-Strike 2 still makes it hard not to reminisce on the massive influence CSGO has had.

To cap off CSGO’s incredibly long life cycle, the upcoming Paris Major will be the last for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The Fall Major is being skipped over entirely, with Counter-Strike 2 having its debut Major in March 2024.

Counter-Strike 2 set to replace CSGO at Majors after Paris

With Counter-Strike 2 having such a sudden announcement, questions about what that means for the future of CSGO started to arise. Valve hasn’t made fans wait long to get news on the future of the decade-old title.

Counter-Strike 2’s debut Major was announced to be taking place in March 2024, which has fans excited to see what the future holds for a new generation of Counter-Strike.

Unfortunately, this announcement has also come with the news that the upcoming Paris Major will be the last CSGO Major ever.

The Paris Major will be the final CS:GO Major.

The following Major will be in March 2024 and the first in Counter-Strike 2.

— CS2 (@CounterStrike) March 24, 2023

While fans were initially excited by the news, they then realized this would mean the Fall Major won’t come this year. It’ll take almost an entire year for us to get the next Counter-Strike Major.

Though fans are excited to see what Counter-Strike 2 has in store, this has stunted excitement a bit for fans and organizations within the scene.

It remains to be seen whether or not Valve has more in store for fans anxiously awaiting Counter-Strike 2’s pro debut or if we’ll really have to wait almost 12 months to get more of one of the world’s biggest esports.