Richard Lewis: Valve unhappy with partnered leagues
The tournament landscape could look very different in the future if ESL and BLAST are forced to change their approach.
Valve has requested structural changes from CS:GO's major tournament organizers, according to journalist Richard Lewis, who writes this story on his substack site.
Here he explains how Valve thinks that the current system of partnered teams paying for permanent slots in the leagues has limited competitive opportunities and that they have created an imbalance in world rankings. This a point that is shared with a lot of the organizations and players currently outside of the partner slots with the best example probably being ENCE, who has hovered around the top of CS:GO in 2022 and 2023. You can read in-game leader Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer's thoughts about it in the article below.
Both ESL and BLAST have faced criticism for this approach. Valve expressed concerns about the competitive landscape and insisted on changes to the partnered leagues to grant tournament licenses for CS2. While the details are not finalized, Valve wants a more open slot allocation system that allows smaller teams to participate, even in invite-heavy tournaments.
ESL is exploring options and aims to find a solution that satisfies Valve's requirements. This move by Valve aligns with their previous stance against exclusivity deals in CS:GO. The upcoming release of CS2 could mark a fresh start for the game, according to Richard Lewis.
