Valve Major Championships
Valve Major Championships, commonly known as Majors, are tournaments sponsored by Valve with a prize pool of $1,250,000 (previously $250,000 and $1,000,000). They were first introduced in 2013 at DreamHack Winter.
Earlier versions of Counter-Strike also had events considered Majors, but they were not supported by Valve.
Tournament Format[edit]
2013 - 2016[edit]
- The tournament proper starts with a 16-team GSL group stage divided into four group of four. Group winners and runners-up advance to the Playoffs.
- The Playoffs is a Bo3 Single-Elimination bracket.
2017[edit]
- The Group Stage now follows a 16-team Swiss System format. Top 8 teams from the group advance to the Playoffs.
- The Playoffs is a Bo3 Single-Elimination bracket.
2018 - Present[edit]
Starting from ELEAGUE Boston 2018, Valve announced a new overall tournament format, which brought in the Offline Qualifier as a part of the Major Championship. This change increased the number of teams at the Major Championships from 16 to 24.
- The first two stages of the event follow a 16-team Swiss System format. Top 8 teams from each swiss group advance to the next stage.
- The deciding stage is a Bo3 Single-Elimination bracket.
With the format change, each stage of the tournament is also renamed:
- Offline Qualifier => The (New) Challengers Stage (from Boston 2018) => Opening Stage (from Copenhagen 2024)
- Group Stage => The (New) Legends Stage (from Boston 2018) => Elimination Stage (from Copenhagen 2024)
- Playoffs => The (New) Champions Stage (from Boston 2018) => Playoff Stage (from Copenhagen 2024)
Qualification System[edit]
Legend System and Regional Qualifiers[edit]
Early Majors follow the Legend invite system:
- The top eight teams from every Major gained "Legend" status and were automatically qualified to the next Major.
- Remaining eight teams were determined through a variety of regional qualifiers across the world.
Offline Qualifier and Minor Championships[edit]
- For more info on Minors.
For DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015, Valve announced that DreamHack Open Stockholm 2015 would be restructured to act as an Offline Qualifier for the Major, with the bottom eight teams from the previous Major at Cologne being invited and 8 more qualifying from various regional qualifiers. Subsequent Majors adopted this and the Offline Qualifier became an official part of the Major qualifying system.
In December 2015, Valve announced another addition in a series of events called Regional Minor Championships which acted as the dedicated qualifying route for teams who were yet to have a Major spot. Divided into 4 regions (Europe, CIS, Americas, Asia), Minors saw few changes in their formats and usually offered 2 spots at the Offline Qualifier for each region, effectively replacing the previously unstable structure of regional qualifiers.
The eight-team "Legend" system remained intact throughout this period.
Expanded Format[edit]
With the expansion from 16 to 24 teams from ELEAGUE Boston 2018 onwards, there were also changes to qualification spots:
- Top 16 teams (reduced to 14 after FACEIT London 2018) from each Major were directly invited to the next one.
- Top 8 teams received "Legend" status
- Remaining teams received "Challenger" status
- Other qualifying teams were decided via Minor events, they would also receive "Contender" status.
Regional Major Rankings[edit]
- For more info on Regional Major Rankings.
Following the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, Valve announced a new system called Regional Major Rankings to replace the previous Major-qualification route. It started off as a point-based ranking with teams competing in their respective regions (a total of 6: Europe, CIS, North America, South America, Asia, Oceania) through a series of events, with each of the top regional teams earning spots at the Major and as a Legend/Challenger/Contender depending on their final placement.
From 2022, Valve replaced the points-based system for the RMR with singular events for each of the 3 regions (Europe, Americas, Asia-Pacific) to decide the Major spots. Teams' status for the Major (Legend/Challenger/Contender) remained reliant on their placements from the RMR events.
Valve's Regional Standings[edit]
- For more info on Valve's Regional Standings.
In 2023, Valve announced their own version of a team ranking which effectively acts as the seeding method for teams at both the RMRs and Major from PGL Copenhagen 2024 onwards.
The Legend/Challenger/Contender team status was not directly used with this change, however, the top 8 teams from the RMRs in accordance to the previous Major result and Valve's Regional Standings still received a bye to the second stage of the Major while the remaining teams would start from the first stage.
List of Valve Major Championships[edit]
For a list of future unconfirmed Major Championships, click here.