Valve has overhauled the Regional Major Ranking system for its Counter-Strike Majors following around a long period of criticism from fans and analysts. The old system included the RMR results in seeding, meaning an objectively powerful team could get stuck with an extremely low seed based on their performance there. Now, Valve’s own global rankings are factored into the seeding for the Major, making it more difficult for underdog teams to go on an undeserved run.
The change will place teams that already compete at these international events at a significant advantage as opposed to less powerful ones. In the past, winning the RMR allowed the team that won to skip straight through to the Legends stage: Now, you have to be both good in the RMR moment and consistent over time to bypass a portion of the competition. A note: this distinction only applies to regions that have Legends spots.
Speaking of the Legends stage and spots, Valve has changed the naming conventions for the Majors stages. “Challengers” is now “Opening,” “Legends” is now “Elimination,” and “Champions” has been renamed to “Playoffs.”
When the Major goes to the Swiss stage format portion, team pairings will change. In the old system, the top-seeded team played the sixteenth, the second played the fifteenth, and so on. In the new system, the first will play the ninth, the second will play the tenth, and so on.
While these changes feel small to someone not invested in CS2 esports, the removal of the winner going straight through to the second stage of the Major is a big change. If you’ve been an average team for the entire year and then go on a bit of a fluke run at the RMR, you no longer get blessed. While this change certainly hurts underdogs, it shows that Valve values consistency in results over one-off campaigns, simultaneously rewarding excellence while enhancing the charm of a Cinderella team. The first time we’ll get to see these changes in action will be in March 2024, when PGL hosts the first CS2 Major.
