Valve announces new Major Qualification Path; 5 Asian teams confirmed attendance

Valve has announced a new format for the Major in their CS Major Supplement Rulebook, with a new Qualification Path, ahead of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025. The Major is now confirmed to have 32 teams, and have eliminated the RMR from their path.

Instead, a 16 team Stage 1 will take place ahead of Stage 2 and Stage 3, that will feature 8 teams invited to each of them like before according to the Valve Regional Standing.

The 16 teams participating in Stage 1 will have to qualify through the MRQ (Major Regional Qualifier), that will take place in the three VRS Regions : Asia, NA, and EU. The MRQs are allowed to be held online, and will depend on the Organiser.

Courtesy of a deep playoffs run by The MongolZ, Asia will now receive one direct invite to Stage 3, and four direct invites to Stage 1. This means that we will see a total of 5 Asian teams in the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, 2 more than the Shanghai Major.

The MRQ for Asia will adhere to the following format :

• Teams with 2-0 record advance.

• Teams with 1-1 record play the following matches:
  Highest seed from A faces lowest seed from B
  Highest seed from B faces lowest seed from A

• Teams with 2-1 record advance.