The first Major for 2018 was announced by Valve on the 5th of October 2017. The $1,000,000 Major will be held in North American soil as has been the norm for the past few years. The first time a Major was announced in North America was in April 2016 when MLG organised their first Major. Valve’s focus on creating a balance between the two zones ( NA and EU ) in terms of major distribution is clearly showing.

The Eleague Major will feature 16 teams battling it out at the Gfuel Arena. Agganis Arena is a 7,200-seat multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, on the campus of Boston University, built on the location of the former Commonwealth Armory. It will feature a Prize pool of $1,000,000 along with the prestige of winning a Major. The last winners of a CS GO Major were Gambit Gaming when they won PGL Krakow.

The Major announcement was unexpected as Valve typically wait a few months before announcing the next major. That being said, the Eleague Major will be held in January 2018. The Major announcement however seems to have created a lot of problems for various teams. With conflicting schedules and lack of open qualifiers in some minors, the Eleague Major has been one of the most controversial buildups in CS GO history. There has obviously been a lack in the planning and the organisers of the various minors leading upto the Major.

The announcement was followed by tweets and posts on social media by various players from Asian and CIS origin. These two regions were the most affected with out of the ordinary practices with regards to their out of the ordinary minor ruleset.

Asian Minor : Invite Only

CIS Qualifier and Minor Schedules

Asian Minor: Invite Only

Wait… the Asia Minor is INVITE only?! What?! What is the point of the Minor system then? This tilts me — Sudhen W. (@OfficialBleh) October 5, 2017

Each Major is required to have entry points ( Minors ) for the biggest regions in the world. The most prominent regions in CS GO are NA, Brazil, CIS, Asia and Europe. The Minors provide an opportunity for any player to form his own team and compete for a chance at the Major. Valve’s rules do not explicitly state that Minors need to have open qualifiers but that has been the accepted norm till today. With the Eleague Major, some minors seem to have done away with open qualifiers altogether.

There will be eight teams fighting for the spots to the Major and all eight teams are invited teams. There are no open qualifiers which means there is no chance for any new and upcoming team to even try to potentially throw up a surprise. At the cost of repeating ourselves, this is an unprecedented situation; one which throws up a lot of problems.

Lack of Competition

The Asian Minor has eight invited teams which will compete in the minor. With all eight teams being invited to the tournament, it does not fulfil its prime objective of selecting the best teams in the region. Team’s performance are always changing in CS GO. There has been a recent surge against the Legends system in Majors. It’s primarily because the teams change so much between one major to another. A Natus Vincere which was in the playoffs at the Eleague Major 2017 got eliminated in the Group stage at PGL Krakow Major. We have all seen the steep downfall of teams such as NIP, Fnatic in the past.

A minor chance exists that in the future some business school uses Valve’s scheduling a case study for how to NOT do things. — lurppis (@lurppis) October 5, 2017

The lack of an open qualifier would mean that certain teams will always be assured of a place in the minor. Not only does this waste a spot in the Minor due to lack of open qualifiers, it essentially robs deserving teams of a spot. Lack of competition, especially in a much weaker region such as Asia means that the region will almost never be able to sends its strongest teams to the Majors.

Potential for abuse.

Invite only Minors have huge potential for abuse. As we can see in the Asia Minor Championships, all the eight invited teams have some organisation backing them. Lack of open qualifiers means that if you are not in an organisation your chances of being invited are very small. But a new team comprising of new players cannot always be assured of being picked up in an organisation. We have seen in the past random mixed teams being picked up by different esports organisations despite not winning a tournament. The Minors are platforms for new teams to showcase their talent. It can be said that Minors are scouting fields for new talent and organisations. But having an invite based system does more harm than good for the region.

Of course there is always the conflict of interest when an organisation might be invited because of their affiliation to the tournament organisers. If there were only 4 invites to the Minor, a tournament organiser can only hand them out to the better teams in a region. But in the current case, there is a lot more leeway and discretion available to the tournament organisers.

How much is too much?

We recommend at least 50% reservation for teams qualified through the open qualifiers. This is essential for fair practice in the matches. The benefits of an open qualifier system are manifold. It helps the best teams in the region assert themselves on the International stage. It will essentially mean that the teams can have a potentially better chance at winning big International tournaments. A Major title would go a long way in increasing investments in a particular region. The best example of such a situation is SK Gaming and Brazil. Before SK Gaming ( then LG ) not many knew about the Brazilian CS GO Scene. But since SK Gaming won their Major titles, we have seen more and more teams look towards Brazil to import teams / buy players. The recent Immortals drama is one such example of teams looking for Brazil to provide them with the best talent available. After SK Gaming we have seen multiple Brazilian rosters come up with amazing performances such as Immortals, Tempo Storm and now Team One.

If an Asian team wins a big tournament it would definitely raise eyeballs. Asia is by far the most populous continent. It would essentially mean that teams can find talent in the region for a very lucrative price compared to North America. We urge all tournament organisers to secure at least 50% reservation for teams through the open qualifiers. Having an invite only Asian minor is simply unacceptable.

Schedule

LOL, @ELEAGUETV Asia Minor clashes with @ESLAustralia #ZENLeague S2 Finals and @ROGMasters APAC Main Qual & Regional Finals on Oct 26-29. Are you fucking kidding me? So many teams screwed because of @csgo_dev ‘s scheduling … — Alex Deng (邓证谚) (@flam3zcsgo) October 5, 2017

The Minor system announced by Valve also had a lot of scheduling problems. CS GO is the only big esport left from amongst the big four : Dota2, Overwatch, LoL and CS GO which does not have a pre-planned schedule for it’s esports calendar. With Overwatch and LoL, it’s obviously much easier as the game developers exert full control over their Intellectual Property. But the two Valve games have had a lot of uncertainty and confusion about their schedule. With Third party tournament organisers reigning supreme over the Valve games, there is always scope for scheduling conflicts amongst them.

TyLoo now have to skip a $500,000 event (EPICENTER) in order to probably not qualify for the $1,000,000 Major. But they have to try. — Petar Milovanovic (@Tgwri1s) October 5, 2017

But Valve sought a way around this by working with all parties concerned in Dota2. They have already announced a esports circuit for Dota2 and the entire schedule for the next one year is laid out in front of the teams. This will provide the teams with ample time to assess and choose which tournaments to attend. They can also secure their VISAs in time for the next International.

The CIS Minor schedule for CS GO clashes with those of many other tournaments. The fact that the minor qualifiers were scheduled for just three days after the announcement provides almost no time for teams to prepare themselves. The CIS Major is scheduled in Europe just 20 days post the initial announcement. This presents a big logistical problem to teams who might be unable to secure their visas in time.

The biggest joke:

a) Asia minor without open quals

b) CIS qualifiers in 3 days

c) CIS Minor in Europe, in 20 days… good luck with visas. — Yehor Kolomiets (@SLTVpANdA) October 5, 2017

Teams, Tournament organisers and Valve should work together on making the schedule a lot less haywire than it is right now. Laying down rules regarding the schedule, the minors is within Valve’s jurisdiction and something that they should assert themselves. The Eleague Majors and Minors have created lots of problems. The teams have no choice other than to comply with the regulations laid out for them. But life would be a lot easier if the three parties involved would just communicate.

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