Asia Major Qualification

by BreadHead

Valve has decided to change direction regarding its Major qualification system, pivoting away from open qualifiers for all regions—excluding the Asia region—for the upcoming CS2 Perfect World Shanghai Major. 

With The MongolZ advancing to the top 16 stage in the recent BLAST Copenhagen Major, Asia will now have three spots at the Perfect World Major in Shanghai, China running from November 30 to December 15 this year.

The removal of open qualifiers for the two major regions, Europe and the Americas, has been met with some scrutiny from the community. A petition was made by the community members in an attempt to reverse Valve’s decision, requesting that we “not allow Counter-Strike to become a closed circuit game” and once again allow “anyone” to qualify for the pinnacle tournament, as was intended in the first place. 

To attend the Major from North America, Europe, or South America, teams must acquire enough points in the Valve Global Rankings to get invited to compete in the RMR. Teams gain points through winning prize money and head-to-head results. Valve has also enforced its ranking system on all tournaments going forward. 

This change is based on Valve’s August 4, 2023 blog post, “A Level Playing Field,” which outlines their vision for an open circuit set to begin in 2025 and continue for the foreseeable future. Valve further clarified the new rules in another blog post last month adding explanation and details of the changes, stating that all events will be split into ranked and unranked classes. 

Unranked tournaments don't contribute towards Valve's team standings but can use direct invites. Ranked events cannot directly invite teams but must use Valve's rankings and open or closed qualifiers. The number of invited teams must be equal to or less than the number coming from closed qualifiers. 

The Major qualifiers adhere to the changes with four teams (Rooster, Bad News Kangaroos, Mindfreak and KZG) already invited to the Oceanic closed qualifier due to the Valve regional ranking, with the other four spots are from the Open Qualifier.

The community backlash over removing most open qualifiers for the major has somewhat overshadowed the fact that Asia will still have open qualifiers, offering a chance for a cinderella story to emerge from the region. There will be seven different open qualifiers running to be condensed into closed qualifiers and eventually the RMR, which will be played on site in Shanghai. 

The seven open qualifiers that will run for the CS2 Shanghai Major in the Asia region are as follows:

• Oceanic Qualifier
• Chinese Qualifier
• East Asian Qualifier
• Rest of Asia Qualifier
• Arabian Qualifier
• Levantine and African Qualifier
• South African Qualifier

Qualifying for the prestigious Counter-Strike Major has been revealed to be life changing, and in some cases mandatory for esports organizations and players to remain relevant. There have been reports that the value of cosmetic stickers in the game can equate to a multi-million sum of money for each team depending on their placement in the sticker capsules. In recent history we have seen new teams made up of majority Asia players and European talent to fill the remaining spots, constructed solely to win the open qualifiers and have a chance to see the major money. 

This major cycle, it’s Oceania CS that has some European help. Talon’s new roster including the Polish Awper mhL and Swedish coach djL, has already shown some promise and will be competing at the Oceanic open qualifier. In a X/Twitter post, it was announced that SemperFi Esports have made a new team with three Aussies and two Latvians. The squad have been bootcamping in Latvian capital Riga in preparation for the qualifier.

There is a new era of rising talent in our scene who need the opportunity to test their game against tougher European opposition. Former Vantage standout rifler “Vision” was a player I touted to be an up and coming talent and will now get that chance with SemperFi. With everyone preparing to peak in two to three weeks when the major qualifiers start, it is a great time to tune into OCE CS.

The strategy from these orgs seem very short-term. Unfortunately, these teams won’t be competing locally and will instead spend most of their time in EU, as there is no significant competition for them in OCE. Due to the team’s players being majority Australian, they are eligible to come back home and run through the gauntlet in the Oceanic open qualifier. 

It is a coin flip if they make the major or not, with the top four making it through from open to the closed qualifier given only one team makes it through to the Asia-Pacific RMR. The road doesn't end there if they want a slice of the sticker money; you would then have to come top three in the RMR to play in the major and truly cement yourself into the history of Counter-Strike. 

It’s certainly not easy, it is the “world championship” after all, but bolstering your roster with European prospects and rolling through an easier OCE open qualifier gives you a nice start to achieve something great. That said, everyone is hungry to make the Major and won’t go down without a fight.

The OCE open qualifier for the Shanghai Major APAC RMR begins on Fri, August 23.