Counter-Strike is at its best when teams compete on a level playing field and when ability is the only limit to their success. And we think that Counter-Strike should be an open sport. So below, we describe new requirements to running large-scale competitive tournaments.
Briefly, these rules limit the ability to directly invite teams to tournaments, enforce transparency in compensation, and define the types of tournaments we will consider in our official ranking system.
If you're interested in running a Counter-Strike tournament you will need a license from Valve. In many cases the Limited Game Tournament License (https://store.steampowered.com/tourney/limited_license) will cover your tournament. However, if you want to operate at a scale that exceeds the limited license, you must contact Valve to obtain a broader license.
For any questions or exception requests, contact [email protected], subject: "tournament operation requirements.”
The following rules shall apply to all Counter Strike 2 Tournament(s). The version of the Tournament Operation Requirements that apply to a Tournament is the version that was current as of the Tournament's Additional Information deadline.
1.1 "Valve Regional Standings" or "VRS" shall mean the official system for ranking the performance of Rosters published by Valve, which is provided in a version calculated and published on a monthly basis that shall be the basis for Direct VRS Invites.
1.2 "Roster" shall be a collection of five specific Athletes, irrespective of their current or later association with a given Team organization.
1.3 "Qualified Roster(s)" shall mean any Roster that has been selected to appear in the Tournament in accordance with the procedures defined herein.
1.4 "Direct VRS Invite" shall mean a method of selecting Qualified Rosters from the VRS.
1.5 "Ranked Tournament" shall mean a Tournament for which the outcome generates data used by the Valve Regional Standings to determine the relative performance of Rosters.
1.6 "Unranked Tournament" shall mean a Tournament for which the outcome does not generate data used by the Valve Regional Standings to determine the relative performance of Rosters.
1.7 "Main Stage" shall mean the stage of a Tournament past which no Rosters enter (i.e., Rosters are only eliminated past this point).
1.8 "Open Qualifier" shall mean a stage of the Tournament that is open to the public.
1.9 "Announcement Date" shall mean the date on which a Tournament is announced to the public.
1.10 "Invite Date" shall be the date on which the invitations to Rosters for a given Tournament are being sent out.
1.11 "Tournament Dates" shall mean the entire period of the Tournament, spanning from its start date to its end date, and includes all days during which Rosters could be required to be present (e.g., for matches, media, meetings, or other Tournament-related activities).
If the Tournament Operator defines a Tournament as an Unranked Tournament, then the following rules shall apply:
2.1 Tournament Operator must comply with the terms of the Limited Game Tournament License (https://store.steampowered.com/tourney/limited_license).
2.2 Rosters may be directly invited and/or selected by any other qualifying process at the discretion of the Tournament Operator.
2.3 The total compensation (including prize pool and any other forms of compensation) for an individual Unranked Tournament may not exceed $100,000. If Tournament Operator operates more than one Unranked Tournament in a year, the total compensation for all Unranked Tournaments may not exceed $250,000.
If Tournament Operator defines a Tournament as a Ranked Tournament, then the following rules shall apply:
3.1 License. Tournament Operator must comply with the terms of the Limited Game Tournament License (https://store.steampowered.com/tourney/limited_license).
3.2 Invites.
3.2.1 Tournament Operator chooses the VRS list or lists, and for each list, the number of Rosters to invite and the VRS ranks from which to start the invitations.
3.2.2 Tournament Operator must invite a minimum of two Rosters from any single VRS list.
3.2.3 Tournament Operator must use the most recent version of the Invitation VRS (counter-strike_regional_standings\invitation), as of the Invite Date.
3.2.4 Tournament Operator must invite Rosters sequentially, starting with the chosen starting VRS rank.
3.2.5 Directly invited VRS Rosters may only accept an invitation for a Tournament if at least three of the Athletes on Roster were also present on the Roster on the Invite Date.
3.2.6 If any Rosters cannot accept, or choose to decline the Direct VRS Invite, Tournament Operator shall proceed down the VRS in order until all announced slots to the Tournament are filled.
3.2.7 In the event that there are fewer eligible VRS rosters than the number of announced Direct VRS Invites, the Tournament Operator may supplement with Open Qualifiers.
3.3 VRS Subdivision
3.3.1 For every two Americas VRS invitations, Tournament Operator may subdivide VRS invitations into one North America invitation and one South America invitation.
3.3.2 Tournament Operator may subdivide Asia VRS invitations equally between Oceania, West Asia, and East Asia.
3.3.3 If Tournament Operator subdivides a VRS region in this way, Rosters must have majority citizenship in the relevant subregion.
3.4 VRS Priority.
3.4.1 If the Tournament Operator includes Wildcard Invites or Open Qualifiers, those Rosters must enter the Tournament at or before the first stage featuring a VRS invite.
3.4.2 A Directly Invited VRS Roster cannot start at a later stage than another Directly Invited VRS Roster with a higher VRS Rank.
3.4.3 For the purposes of seeding within a stage, Tournament Operator will use the Global VRS rank from the Invitation VRS, if applicable.
3.4.4 Rosters without a Global VRS rank cannot be seeded higher than VRS Ranked Rosters.
3.5 Open Qualifiers.
For Open Qualifiers, Tournament Operator can use any criteria that in good faith are reasonable and transparent, and do not specifically target individual Rosters. Acceptable criteria include demographics and region (e.g. "Female Rosters based in Canada").
3.6 Wildcard Invite.
3.6.1 For every 8 Rosters invited from a VRS, 2 eligible Rosters ("Wildcard Invite") can be invited to the Tournament.
3.6.2 If Tournament Operator chooses not to make use of previously announced Wildcard Invitations, they may invite the next highest ranked Rosters from the VRS lists already announced for the Tournament.
3.6.3 A Roster shall only be eligible for a Wildcard Invite if it fulfills at least one of the following requirements as of the Invitation Date:
a) It includes at least 3 players who individually were members of a top 8 Roster on an Invite VRS List at any time during the preceding 6 months.
b) It has placed first or second place in any Tournament, of equal or lesser tier than the one issuing the invite, during the preceding 6 months.
3.7 Tier 1 Tournaments.
If the Tournament Operator defines the Tournament as a "Tier 1" Tournament then the following rules shall apply:
3.7.1 Tournament Operator must invite from one or more of the official VRS lists: Global, Americas, Europe, Asia.
3.7.2 The Tournament must invite a minimum of 16 Rosters by Direct VRS Invite.
3.7.3 The list of invited Rosters always starts with the Roster that has the top VRS rank (i.e., the #1 Roster) at the time of the Invite Date.
3.7.4 The Main Stage must feature a minimum of 8 Rosters.
3.7.5 Tournament Operator may additionally include Open Qualifiers.
3.8 Tier 2 Tournaments.
If Tournament Operator defines a Tournament as a Tier 2 Tournament, the following rules shall apply:
3.8.1 The Tournament Operator may invite entirely by one or more Open Qualifiers.
3.8.2 If the Tournament Operator invites any Rosters by Direct VRS Invite, then the Tournament must invite a minimum of 4 Rosters by Direct VRS Invite.
3.8.3 Tournament Operator may apply additional filters to the VRS lists (e.g., "North America") insofar as they do not lead to the specific targeting of individual Teams or Rosters. For the avoidance of doubt, filtering by country or gender is permitted.
3.8.4 If Tournament Operator decides to include Direct VRS Invites from an unfiltered VRS list, the VRS rank of the invited Rosters must be no better than 9.
3.8.5 If Tournament Operator decides to include Direct VRS Invites from a filtered version of the VRS, the VRS rank of the invited Rosters may begin at 1 and the number of invited Rosters must be at least 8. A filtering of a VRS list must be meaningful--a filtering that produces a list that is nearly identical to the unfiltered one is not to be considered 'filtered' for this purpose.
3.9 Wildcard Tournaments. For every three completed Tournaments, Tournament Operator may operate one Wildcard Tournament of equivalent or lesser Tier. If Tournament Operator defines a Tournament as a Wildcard Tournament, the following rules shall apply:
3.9.1 A Wildcard Tournament may feature an unlimited number of Wildcard invitations and has no minimum number of rosters participating in the Tournament.
3.9.2 Tournament Operator must specify the Tournaments associated with the Wildcard Tournament. Wildcard invitations must adhere to the same VRS list applied to the respective Tournaments.
3.9.3 Tournament Operator may additionally invite from the VRS or include Open Qualifiers.
4.1 Announcement Date. For Tier 1 Tournaments and Wildcard Tournaments the following rules apply:
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For Tournaments starting between 1 January, 2025 and 31 December, 2025:
- The Announcement Date must be no later than 1 September, 2024.
- The Invite Date must follow the announcement of Additional Information by no fewer than 30 days.
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For Tournaments starting between 1 January, 2026 and 31 December, 2026:
- The Announcement Date must be no later than 1 January, 2025.
- The Invite Date must follow the announcement of Additional Information by no fewer than 60 days.
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For Tournaments starting after 31 December, 2026:
- The Announcement Date must be at least 24 months prior to the start of the Tournament's main event
- The Invite Date must follow the announcement of Additional Information by no fewer than 6 months.
For Tier 2 Tournaments that include Direct VRS Invites the following rules apply:
- The Announcement Date must be at least 2 months before the start of the Tournament's main event.
- The Invite Date must follow the announcement of Additional Information by no fewer than 30 days.
For Tier 2 Tournaments that do not have any direct VRS invites the following Rules apply:
- The Announcement Date must be at least two weeks before the start of the Tournament's main event.
4.2 Basic Information. For all types of Tournaments, on the Announcement Date, Tournament Operator shall publish the Tournament Dates and the identity of the Tournament Operator.
4.3 Additional Information. Tournament Operator shall publish the following additional information no later than 12 months before the Tournament main event for Tier 1 and Wildcard Tournaments, no later than 2 months before the Tournament main event of Tier 2 Tournaments that feature VRS invitations, and no later than two weeks before the Tournament main event of Tier 2 Tournament that do not feature any VRS invitations:
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A definition of the filters to the VRS (if any) that Direct VRS Invites will be based on.
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The VRS rank from which Tournament Operator will begin invitations.
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The number of Rosters subject to a Direct VRS Invite and/or Wildcard Invite, if any.
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The Invitation Date.
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The VRS publication date from which Direct VRS Invites will be issued.
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The broader geographical region where the Tournament takes place, e.g., North America, West Europe, Southeast Asia, etc.
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Whether an Open Qualifier will be part of the Tournament and if so, the rules for such an Open Qualifier.
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Which Tournament stages are online or LAN.
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The prize pool and the rules for its distribution. To the degree that Tournament Operator compensates Teams, Rosters or Athletes for appearing at Tournaments in any other way (e.g. guaranteed payments for appearances, revenue shares in sponsorships or media rights etc.), Tournament Operator will publish comprehensive information of all such compensation.
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Any integrity or conduct rules that may disqualify a Roster from a Direct VRS Invite.
5.1 Non-Exclusivity. Tournament Operator undertakes not to engage in direct or indirect agreements with Athletes or Teams that would artificially restrict such Athletes' or Teams' ability to take part in third-party Tournaments. Tournament Operator is free to restrict a Team's or Roster's participation in a third-party Tournament while the affected Team or Roster is on location at a Tournament's LAN event, including days without matches.
5.2 Non-Discriminatory Treatment of Teams. Any agreement between Tournament Operator and Teams or Athletes needs to be non-discriminatory and identical for all Teams or Athletes. In particular, if Tournament Operator is going to share revenue or otherwise provide financial support, then such support must be equivalent for all Rosters or otherwise determined by an objective kpi that is applied equally to all Rosters, including Rosters that have been directly invited, qualified or entered through a Wildcard Invite determined before Rosters are selected. Such support must be accessible by all participating Rosters, determined by the Rosters' performance in the Tournament, another objective merit-based kpi related to the Tournament, e.g. viewership numbers of matches involving the respective Team, Roster or Athlete, or by the Roster's VRS ranking on the Invitation Date.
5.3 Potential Conflicts of Interest. Tournament Operator and Tournament staff may not have any business relationship, including, but not limited to, shared management, shared ownership of entities, licensing, and loans, whether related to Valve Games or otherwise (each an "Entanglement") with any participating Team or Athletes unless approved by Valve. An Entanglement is considered approved if (a) it is disclosed to Valve in writing and (b) Valve has not objected to within 90 days of the disclosure; provided that only disclosures after the Effective Date of the Agreement shall trigger the 90 days period.
Within its sole discretion, Valve reserves the right to a) require that Tournament Operator address and remove the Entanglement within a reasonable period of time, not to exceed two weeks, or b) terminate the Agreement without cost or penalty for Valve.
An explicit or implicit approval by Valve shall be valid for the duration of one year starting on the date that Valve has received disclosure, unless explicitly otherwise scoped by Valve when granting the approval. The approval period shall thereafter auto-renew by the same time it was initially granted until terminated.
5.4 Invite Exceptions. Tournament Operator may have rules that disqualify certain individuals from participating in their Tournaments due to misconduct, cheating infractions, being flagged by esports bodies as a matchmaking fix risk, or other integrity or compliance issues. If the Tournament Operator wishes to disqualify any Rosters, they must:
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Publish the disqualification rules as part of Additional Information.
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Publish the details of any disqualification decision at the time it occurs.