Valve tournament guidelines updated

Going into 2025, one of the most common talking points for the future of Counter-Strike has been Valve's new rulebook, establishing guidelines around how tournament organizers are expected to operate in the future. The rulebook saw significant changes to how teams are invited and who makes it to main events.

In the latest modification to the tournament rulebook, Valve now allows tournament organizers to use the most recent version of the Valve Regional Standings at the time of sending out invites.

Tier-1 events will no longer be permitted to segregate sub-regions for invites. For instance, the organizer can hand out invites after applying their respective eligibility matrix across the Asian region but cannot apply the same to sub-regions such as Southeast Asia and hand out invites.

Tier-2 events get a bit of breathing room with the new change to the rulebook. For tier-2 events, organizers can now apply additional filters to figure out invitees given that it isn't done with the intention to target specific teams.