Valve mandates all large-scale events to use official ranking system

Valve, the developer of Counter-Strike has issued a new statement today which affirms their decision on creating an open ecosystem within the title. As part of the statement, they are forbidding tournament organizers from having unique business relationships or other conflicts of interest with teams that participate in events, starting by 2025.

This is clearly aimed that the changing nature of Counter-Strike and appears to specifically target ESL FACEIT Group's Louvre Agreement and BLAST's Partner Teams.

Additionally, invitations to all large-scale tournaments will use the official Valve ranking system or be determined by open qualifiers.

Valve has acknowledged that tournament organizers have made deep-rooted financial commitments to these types of leagues, so this new ruling will come in effect in 2025. The developer also understands and expects there to be some "rough edges" that will come with this transition, however they are committed to Counter-Strike esports in the long run.

The move comes as Valve has seen Counter-Strike become "less open" with the highest levels of the competition "increasingly gated by business relationships". The major changes will come to "large-scale" competitive events, with the finer details "in progress". As for what defines a "large scale" event, that remains unclear, however we should expect more information to come soon.