Everything You Need to Know About the CS:GO Major

Mark the date in your calendar because a miracle has just occurred; Valve finally spoke about what's going on within the Counter-Strike community. In a blog post released earlier today, Valve touched on what's happening with the ESL One: Rio 2020 Major and the recent "coaching bug" scandal. So, without further ado, here's everything you need to know about what's going on with the CS:GO Major.

The Major: What's happening?

The Rio Major was initially meant to occur between May 11th and May 24th, but was later pushed back to November, where it was supposed to take place between the 9th and 22nd. Not wanting to put fans and players at risk due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, Valve has once again postponed the Major, but indefinitely this time. This will mark the first year there hasn't been a CS:GO Major since 2013, when the Valve-sponsored events were introduced in the first place. 

With that being said, Valve and ESL confirmed that once health and security are no longer at risk globally, the Major will still be held in Rio de Janeiro. All previously bought tickets will still be valid for the future event, although refunds are also possible. 

Valve will continue to hold online Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events in order to keep track of the strongest teams in each region. However, the scheduling of the Major will only be considered once there's a possibility to hold one RMR event on LAN, at a minimum. 

The DudenMichau Tapes

On the subject of RMR, Valve also addressed the recent topic of the coaching bug in its announcement. The bug was brought to the public's attention by Michal Slowinski and Steve Dudenhoeffer, as the pair went through hundreds of demos upon its discovery. The bug in question froze a coach's camera in place following the death of the player they were spectating, allowing them to gain an unfair advantage; getting information regarding the enemy's positioning, rotations, and economy in a "risk-free" fashion. The Esports Integrity Committee, which recently launched an investigation into match-fixing in MDL, has also begun an investigation to determine the full-scale of the bug's abuse. 

While Valve will wait until third parties have investigated and determined their punishments before taking action against individual coaches, it has stated that all teams disqualified from an RMR event for abusing the bug will lose their RMR points. MIBR's Ricardo "dead" Sinigaglia and Hard Legion Esports' Aleksandr "zoneR" Bogatiryev are among those caught abusing the bug, meaning that both teams will lose all of their RMR points. 

Not quite the Major, but we'll take it!

To fill the void in the CS:GO event calendar left by the postponed Major, ESL has announced two new events. The first is IEM: Beijing-Haidan 2020, which will be held online in November. It will feature four regional divisions: Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia. There will be a combined prize pool of $250,000, and ESL Pro Tour points up to grab in the newly-announced event.

The second event is IEM: Global Challenge 2020, an invite-only LAN event which will be held in Cologne, Germany, between December 15th and 20th. Though ESL has stated that the tournament is still subject to potential changes, depending on further developments regarding the pandemic, it's meant to be the first international CS:GO LAN event since March. Though the teams are yet to be revealed, they will be competing for a first-place victory at the first S-Tier LAN tournament in what seems like an eternity. The $500,000 prize pool tournament is presumed to be held in a studio setting if it happens on LAN. 

While it's obviously unfortunate that the Major won't be taking place this year, it certainly doesn't come as a huge surprise. It'll be intersting to see if ESL is actually going to hold IEM: Global Challenge on LAN, as everyone is eager to feel like things are returning to normal. While it's impossible to determine when the Major will occur, we'll likely see more RMR events in the future, giving MIBR and Hard Legion a sliver of a chance to qualify for the ever-so-anticipant Major.