Climbing the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) is practically impossible, and it’s crippling organizations outside the top 30.
That’s the claim from NIP’s in-game leader, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, who doesn’t seem to have many positive words to say about Valve’s VRS system.
In a post on X, Snappi criticizes Valve for setting up a structure that effectively locks out lower-ranked teams from breaking into the higher tiers.
– It is borderline impossible to grind rank. Valve has fully closed down the entire system, and you are killing organizations not already ranked top 30. We went through 6 open qual games vs multiple paid teams. How is anyone supposed to get up, when almost nothing is ranked, Snappi wrote on X.
A system that blocks progress?
Under Counter-Strike’s new tournament structure, there are very few open qualifiers for “ranked events” that award valuable VRS points.
That makes it tough for lower-ranked teams to improve their standing, as invites to these crucial events are primarily handed out based on the very ranking they are struggling to climb.
Snappi’s outburst came on the same day that Endpoint – a long-standing organization in the scene – announced they are putting their CS division on hold.
The British org directly cited the VRS system as a key factor in their decision.
– The VRS system means that when starting from a low ranking, the struggle to improve that ranking is compounded by the fact that any VRS eligible events are invites only, based on the very same VRS rank you are trying to improve. This turn creates a much smaller and internal eco-system, Endpoint stated.
“No reason to be playing”
Counter-Strike legend Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo has also weighed in on the debate, echoing Snappi’s concerns.
FalleN said the following in an interview with HTLV:
– If you’re not one of the top 25 or top 20 right now, you really have almost no reason to be playing CS because of the way it is structured. (…) We need new orgs picking up CS, we need new teams with the opportunity to show [themselves], and we also need the big orgs to be able to survive, FalleN said.
Snappi and NIP are currently fighting the tough battle in lower-tier CS, as the profiled squad sits without any VRS points at this moment in time.
The former ENCE and Falcons in-game leader joined the Swedish organization this off-season, alongside sjuush, ewjerkz and arrozdoce.
