CS2 Major rule changes remove open qualifiers for the 3 biggest competitive regions

At this year’s Perfect World Counter-Strike 2 Major in Shanghai, the regional qualifier events will not feature open qualifiers for either Europe, North America, or South America for the first time in the illustrious history of the Majors.

Tournament organizer Perfect World released its complete schedule for the Shanghai Counter-Strike Major early this morning, revealing that Europe, North America, and South America would have closed qualifiers in August, but no open qualifiers. Smaller regions like Oceania, the Middle East, East Asia, and the hosts China still retain a single open qualifier followed by another single closed qualifier.

These changes are a reflection of changes to Valve’s Major Rulebook, which now states that Major closed qualifier teams will be solely determined by the developer’s own Regional Standings. However, in the case there are not enough teams from the regional standings to fill a closed qualifier, such as in the smaller regions mentioned above, an open qualifier can be held. But given the amount of teams in the Regional Standings in the three big regions, that means there will be no open qualifier.

The new rules effectively close off access to the Majors for teams that do not place high enough in Valve’s Regional Standings. Though the road to making a Major through open qualifiers is long, many teams have incredibly deep runs. At the final CS:GO Major at BLAST Paris, Into The Breach began in an RMR open qualifier and made it all the way to the quarterfinal.

The decision has not been received well by fans, as a petition on Change.org has already been started, imploring Valve not to “allow Counter-Strike to become a closed circuit game.” Long-time veteran shox said that while open qualifiers with a proper anti-cheat have been a big problem, this outcome costs young players their dreams.