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Foreword

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 events.

Briefly, these rules limit the ability to directly invite teams to events, enforce transparency in compensation, and define the types of events 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 event. However, if you want to operate at a scale that exceeds the limited license, you must contact Valve to obtain a broader license.

Tournament Operating Requirements

The following rules shall apply to all Counter Strike 2 Tournament(s) that conclude after December 31, 2024:

1. Definitions

1.1 "Announcement Date" shall mean the date on which a Tournament is announced to the public.

1.2 "Direct VRS Invite" shall mean a method of selecting Qualified Rosters according to the procedure defined in section 3.1.1 hereunder.

1.3 "Invite Date" shall be the date on which the invitations to Rosters for a given Tournament are being sent out.

1.4 "Main Event" shall mean the part of a Tournament that takes place after any Open Qualifiers or Closed Qualifiers have concluded.

1.5 "Open Qualifier" shall mean a method of selecting Qualified Rosters according to the procedure defined in section 3.1.2 hereunder.

1.6 "Qualified Roster(s)" shall mean any Roster that has been selected to appear in the Main Event of a given Tournament in accordance with the procedures defined herein.

1.7 "Roster" shall be a collection of five specific Athletes, irrespective of their current or later association with a given Team organization.

1.8 "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 (the "Qualifying Rank").

1.9 Ranked Event shall mean a Tournament for which the outcome generates data used by the Valve Regional Standings to determine the relative performance of Rosters.

1.10 Unranked Event 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.

2. Rules for Unranked Events.

If Licensee defines a Tournament as an Unranked Event, then the following rules shall apply:

  • Licensee must comply with the terms of the Limited Game Tournament License (https://store.steampowered.com/tourney/limited_license).

  • Rosters may be directly invited and/or selected by any other qualifying process at the discretion of the Licensee.

  • The total compensation (including prize pool and any other forms of compensation) for an individual Unranked Event may not exceed $100,000. If licensee operates more than one Unranked Event in a year, the total compensation for all Unranked Events may not exceed $250,000.

3. Rules for Ranked Events

For Ranked Events, in addition to the terms of the Limited Game Tournament License (https://store.steampowered.com/tourney/limited_license) or dedicated license that may be applicable to Licensee, Licensee must comply with the following additional rules:

3.1 Qualification and Invite Procedure

3.1.1 Direct VRS Invites. The selection process for Direct VRS Invites shall be as follows:

a) Licensee determines the Qualifying Rank from which to invite Rosters (1 for Tier 1 Events, 9 or lower for Tier 2 Events) as well as the number of Rosters that are to appear in the Tournament's main event and publishes this information on the Announcement Date.

b) On the Invite Date, Licensee invites a number of Rosters that equals 1.5 times the number of Qualified Rosters that are to appear in the Main Event in order of their Qualifying Rank. Licensee will use the most recent version of the Invitation VRS (counter-strike_regional_standings\invitation) as of the Invite Date. For Tier 1 events, the invites have to be based on the global VRS or a sub-list thereof that is officially provided by Valve (Europe, Americas, Asia). For Tier 2 Events, Licensee may apply additional filters (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.

Example: Licensee wishes to operate a Tournament that involves 16 European Rosters based on Direct VRS Invites, starting at Qualifying Rank 9. Accordingly, Licensee sends invites to the 24 Rosters that occupy European Qualifying Ranks 9-32.

c) Rosters are only able to participate in a Tournament based on a Direct VRS Invite if at least three of the Athletes on the participating Roster were also present on the Roster on the Invite Date. If any Rosters cannot participate or choose to decline the Direct VRS Invite, Licensee shall proceed down the VRS in order of Qualifying Ranks until all announced slots to the Tournament are filled.

d) Licensee may allow the invited Rosters with the highest Qualifying Rank to directly proceed to the Main Event, filling up to half of the Main Event positions. All remaining positions in the Main Event must be determined by a separate qualifying process (the "Closed Qualifier").

Example: Licensee runs a 16-team Main Event, and therefore invites 24 Rosters. Eight may proceed directly to the Main Event. The remaining 16 enter a Closed Qualifier to identify the eight Rosters that will qualify to the Main Event.

3.1.2 Open Qualifiers. For Open Qualifiers, Licensee can use any criteria that in good faith are reasonable and transparent, and do not specifically target individual Rosters or Teams. Acceptable criteria include demographics and region (e.g. "Female Rosters based in Canada").

3.1.3 Wildcard Invite. The following additional Wildcard process shall be allowed: For any Tournaments in which 8 or more Rosters compete as part of the Main Event, Licensee may choose to directly invite 2 Rosters ("Wildcard Invite"). For each additional 8 Rosters competing in the main event, Licensee may add 2 more Wildcard Invites. Wildcard Invites may be invited to participate in a Closed Qualifier but not directly join the Main Event. For the purposes of event seeding, Wildcard Invites are considered to have the lowest Qualifying Rank. A Roster shall only be eligible for a Wildcard Invite if it fulfills at least one of the following requirements:

  • It includes at least 3 players who individually were members of a top 8 Roster on the VRS at any time during the preceding 12 months.

  • It has won any Tier 1 event in the 12 months preceding the announcement of the Wildcard Invite.

3.2 Tournament Tiers

3.2.1 Tier 1 Events. If Licensee defines a Tournament as a Tier 1 Event then the following rules shall apply:

a) The Tournament must involve a Direct VRS Invite that is subject to the following special rules that take precedence over section 3.1.1 above:

  • The list of invited Rosters always starts with the Roster that has the top Qualifying Rank (i.e., the #1 team) at the time of the Invite Date. Licensee may supplement this with an Open Qualifier at Licensee's discretion.

  • The invitation to the Direct VRS Invite process must be extended to at least 16 Rosters and feed at least 8 Qualified Rosters into the Main Event.

  • Licensee may choose to additionally invite to the Closed Qualifier any Rosters who won a Tier 2 event in the preceding 6 months.

Example: Licensee wants to operate a Tier 1 Event with an 8-Roster Main Event. Licensee must invite 16 Rosters. Licensee additionally invites 4 rosters who had won recent Tier 2 events (for a total of 20 invited rosters). Licensee allows 4 of the top-ranked Rosters to directly proceed to the Main Event. The other 4 positions in the Main Event are determined by a Closed Qualifier involving the remaining 16 Rosters.

3.2.2 Tier 2 Events. If Licensee defines a Tournament as a Tier 2 Event, the following rules shall apply:

a) Licensee can choose whether the eligibility of Rosters for participation in a Tournament should be based on Direct VRS Invites (3.1.1), Open Qualifiers (3.1.2), or a combination of both.

b) If Licensee decides to include Direct VRS Invites from the global VRS or official sub-list, the Qualifying Rank of the invited Rosters must be no better than 9.

c) If Licensee decides to include Direct VRS Invites from a filtered version of the VRS, the Qualifying Rank of the invited Rosters may begin at 1.

Example: If licensee filters the Americas VRS to "North America," licensee may invite from Rank 1.

3.2.3 Wildcard Events. For every three completed Tier 1 events, Licensee may operate one Wildcard Event. If Licensee defines a Tournament as a Wildcard Event, the following rules shall apply:

a) A Wildcard Event may feature an unlimited number of Wildcard invitations and has no minimum number of rosters participating in the Main Event. Licensee may allow Wildcard Invites to directly proceed to the Main Event.

b) Licensee must specify the events associated with the Wildcard Event. Wildcard invitations must adhere to the same VRS filter applied to the respective events.

c) Licensee may choose to include additional Qualified Rosters, following the guidelines for Tier 1 Events.

Example: Licensee operated two Global Tier 1 Events, one Asia Tier 1 Event, and one Americas Tier 1 Event. Therefore every four Wildcard invites must include two Global Wildcards, one Asia Wildcard, and one Americas Wildcard.

4. Announcement and Publication of Tournament Information.

4.1 Announcement Date. For Tier 1 Events and Wildcard Events the following rules apply:

  • For events 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.

  • For events 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.

  • For events 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 Events and Wildcard Events the following rules apply:

  • The Announcement Date must be at least 3 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.

4.2 Basic Information. For all types of events, Licensee shall publish at least the dates and the identity of the operator of the Tournament.

4.3 Additional Information. Licensee shall publish the following additional information no later than 12 months before the Tournament Main Event for Tier 1 and Wildcard Events and no later than 3 months before the Tournament Main Event of Tier 2:

  • The number of Rosters subject to a Direct VRS Invite and/or Wildcard Invite, if any.

  • The location.

  • Whether an Open Qualifier will be part of the Tournament and if so the rules for such an Open Qualifier.

  • Whether qualifiers and/or the Main Event are online or LAN.

  • A definition of the filters to the VRS (if any) that Direct VRS Invites will be based on.

  • The Qualifying Rank from which Licensee will begin invitations.

  • The prize pool and the rules for its distribution. To the degree that Licensee 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.), Licensee will publish comprehensive information of all such compensation.

  • Any integrity or conduct rules that may disqualify a team from a Direct VRS Invite. (see 5.4)

  • The VRS publication date from which Direct VRS Invites will be issued. (see 3.1.1b)

5. Competition / Integrity.

5.1 Non-Exclusivity. Licensee 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 Events. Licensee is free to restrict a Team's or Roster's participation in a Third-Party Event 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 Licensee and Teams or Athletes needs to be non-discriminatory and identical for all Teams or Athletes. In particular, if Licensee 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. Licensee and Tournament event 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 Licensee 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. Licensee may have rules that disqualify certain individuals from participating in their events due to misconduct, cheating infractions, being flagged by esports bodies as a matchmaking fix risk, or other integrity or compliance issues. If the Licensee wishes to disqualify any Rosters, they must:

  • Publish the disqualification rules as part of Additional Information. (see 4.3)

  • Publish the details of any disqualification decision at the time it occurs.