Valve reportedly introducing ranking system for CS:GO Major invitations

Valve have announced a significant change to the invitation system for the Fall 2020 CS:GO Major, moving away from automatic invites in favor of a ranking system.

According to a report by HLTV, Valve have informed tournament organizers that they are changing the means by which teams will receive direct invites for the second Major of the year.

Historically, teams have been able to guarantee their position at the next Major based on their placing at the previous one. The top eight teams secured ‘Legends’ status and an invitation directly to the Legends stage of the next Major, while the following six teams secured ‘Returning Challengers’ status and automatic invites to the Challengers stage. The remaining spots were open to qualifiers through the Minor system.

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For the second Major of 2020, it seems Valve are looking to replace this system with a ‘Major ranking’ which will determine which teams receive invites to the Major. Points in the ranking system will be distributed to teams based on their performance at the ESL One Rio Major in May 2020, and two other events leading into the second Major of the year, which is set to take place November 2-15.

The top eight teams in this ranking system will then be granted Legends status, while the next eight teams will receive Challenger status for the November Major. The final eight spots will be available through the existing Minor system.

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Details of which tournament organizer will be running the second Major of the year, or where it will be held, have not yet been revealed, although Valve have already stipulated that the event must take place on November 2-15.

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Valve have also reportedly informed tournament organizers that they are taking proposals for the two additional events between the Majors that will count towards the Major ranking, with the following criteria:

• The event will be between July and September.
• The event will result in a LAN portion with a minimum of 8 teams. The portion of the event preceding the LAN competition can be online or LAN.
• The event will include a minimum of 24 teams, of which 16 slots are available to teams by Major ranking, and 8 are selected by a process of the TO’s choosing.
• The event results will differentiate between the top 16 performing teams and the remaining teams.
• Initial seeding for the event will be done by Major ranking.
• Valve will match up to $250k in prize money.

HLTV also report that Valve highlighted that they will not be placing any constraints on the size, location, or format of these events, with the primary purpose being to identify the teams which will qualify for the Major.