Petition to return Major open qualifiers reaches over 2,000 signatures

It's safe to say that people are already upset that there will be no open qualifiers in the Americas or Europe for the upcoming 2024 Perfect World Shanghai Major. Asia will continue to host open qualifiers, as there are insufficient high-ranked teams from the region.

Open qualifiers have been a core tenant of the Major cycle, with teams like Quantum Bellator Fire, Into the Breach, and ECSTATIC all reaching the Major proper thanks to that system. It appears that Valve is now looking to do away with that structure and replace it with direct invites based on their own proprietary ranking.

Some teams and community figures have been upset with such a change. Former NIP coach Faruk "pita" Pita recalled a conversation between himself and the Valve developers. "Hey @CounterStrike, I remember back in 2014 you guys told me and my team in person you wanted CS to be a game where 5 friends would have the possibility to qualify for a major," he said on X. "How are they gonna do that with closed qualifiers only?"

Now, a petition from Brodie Mulvaney, Co-Founder of British organization Viperio, launched on Change.org that directly asks for Valve to keep the open qualifier system.

"The fact that any group of 5 friends has the possibility to qualify for a major by upsetting the biggest teams in an open qualifier system has given us too many memorable moments to just remove," the petition reads. "Let's not allow Counter Strike to become a closed circuit game. Let's not allow the crazy storylines to be taken away form us."

At the time of publication, more than 2,000 people have signed the petition.