The FACEIT Major London has concluded and it may go down as one of the worst Major events in history. There are various reasons as to why this is and while some blame can be put on the tournament organizer, a large part of it has to do with how the Majors are structured. Some community figures have called for some CS:GO equivalent of The International or something like a SuperMajor. While I don’t think we need to go that far, there are changes that must be made to the Major. FACEIT Major London is the perfect example as there are almost no classic games that saved this Major. Because of that, we can see the raw base of what the Major is, where it’s flaws are, and how to improve it.

There are multiple ways that we can go about this, but I think the biggest thing the Major needs to represent is a celebration of the game. The best way to compare this is to The International. The International is a culminating one year event where the legacy of the players are decided in that one moment. Fans have called out for something akin to this in CS:GO, but I’m against it. I like the idea of two Majors a year in which the best of the best duke it out to make their mark on CS:GO history.

Having said that, there are things that do need to be taken from The International, specifically how it celebrates the entire game and community. There are multiple ways The International does this. The first is the scheduling and the tie-in to the event throughout the year. In Dota2, it has worked one of two ways. Either the best teams are invited to The International based on their results and an internal ranking system or they are alloted Dota Pro Circuit points based on placement. The top eight in the DPC then qualify for The International. Then the rest of the teams have to go through the regional qualifiers.

In essence, The International’s seeding system ties itself with the rest of the year and this is something sorely needed in the CS:GO Majors as it does two things. The first is that it creates a fair and balanced bracket for all teams involved. The second is that it creates a continuity between itself and the rest of the year. In the current system, the CS:GO Major largely ignores all other tournaments and pretends none of those tournaments exists. Essentially it is an anti-community system as it ignores everything else. It is a subtle thing, but noticeable if you are someone who is involved in both CS:GO and Dota2. In Dota2, everything you do in the year builds up to that moment. In CS:GO, nothing you did in the previous year truly ties in beyond building your own legacy.

The next point we have to get is scheduling. Everyone knows that The International is always scheduled in August. In the current CS:GO climate, no one knows when the CS:GO Majors are scheduled. Valve are already correcting this as they are now announcing the dates and times of future CS:GO Majors faster, but having a set time where the Majors are placed gives a fixed psychological anchor point for both spectators and fans to build hype around. This also affects the competitive side of things as I think CS:GO Majors need to be scheduled before the player breaks. As we’ve seen at FACEIT Major London, those were not good games. In order for this tournament to be a celebration of the game, we want the players to be at their absolute peaks of performance.

Now we come to the broadcast talent list. In order for the tournament to feel like a celebration of the entire scene, almost everyone who is anyone needs to be involved in some capacity. That is why you see massive broadcast talent lists for The International with multiple hosts, ex-pros, analysts across a variety of different languages and scenes. In the case of FACEIT Major London, we probably had about half of what you’d want. Names like Duncan “Thorin” Shields, Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson, Joona “natu” Leppanen, Richard Lewis, Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner, Scott “SirScoots” Smith, Lauren “Pansy” Scott, Halvor “vENdetta” Gulestol, Mohan “launders” Govindasamy, and others were all names that were missing from this event.

While I understand the financial restrains from the tournament organizer’s point of view, the truth is that you can’t create a community feel and celebration of Counter-Strike if some of the biggest names in the game are missing. While a chicken is nice, I’d have liked to see any of those names in its place. I will credit FACEIT in getting Vince “Vince” Hill to come back to cast one of the Major games as he has been a great caster who deserved to cast at a Major for a long time now. On the other hand, I’d have loved to see more of that. At The International, we see a bunch of names or fan-favorites that aren’t actually competing, but people love. There were segments with Danil “dendi” Ishutin. Ben “Merlini” Wu did a surprise cast at The International 8. Even though someone like Auguste “Semmler” Massonnat is working in the Overwatch League now, I’d have loved to see him do a reunion cast with Anders “Anders” Blume or a segment with him akin to the Late Night Show that The International ran.

Another way that The International brings the community feeling is through their willingness to find and create content around people who are trying their best in smaller regions of the world for the game. Jake “SirActionSlacks” Kanner and Valve went to Japan to do a feature about Mara and the Japanese scene. I’d love to see some equivalent of the smaller scenes in CS:GO about figures like that.

Finally, one of the biggest differences is the surrounding atmosphere around the game. At The International, you have the secret shop, cosplayers, the trade booth, and pub stomps. All of which are integrated into the broadcast at some point. While CS:GO Majors may not have the direct involvement of Valve, I don’t see why the ancillary elements around the game can’t be brought in. There could be a merchandise shop, a place where community map makers or modders have their own playing booths. Imagine getting a printed photo of this:

Then going up to Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski and getting it signed by him. Or buying an actual sticker of the iconic Marcelo “Coldzera” David graffiti art and putting it on your MIBR merchandise (though personally I’d put it on a Liquid hoodie, it feels right). Even pub stomps integrated into the casts would have been cool to see. Imagine someone like Semmler or an old school player like Abdisamad “SpawN” Mohamed watching the game with the fans at a bar.

The truth of the matter is that the games and game quality will always be the biggest factor as to how successful an event is or not, but we can make the CS:GO Majors greater outside of that. We can push it forward and make it a true celebration of the game. There are just some examples of how to improve it and create a stronger community feel, a true celebration of the game, it’s players, and it’s community.

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