Another VRS blunder on the cards

After publicly announcing their regional rankings system, Valve revealed the exact criteria and formula that goes into the Valve Regional Standings in December 2022. As a part of their "Open Season" announcement in July 2024, Valve made sure that the VRS would contribute more actively towards how tournaments are structured and the teams involved.

Ever since, the VRS has had it's share of ups and downs with the system coming under scrutiny in recent times for the loopholes it presented. Earlier this year, the community mocked VRS for how teams would forfeit matches and decline tournament invites to prevent their VRS positions from descending.

The parameters for regional divisions have also been a hot topic under the VRS umbrella and have now manifested into full fledge ridicule among the Counter-Strike community following allegations of Liquid being handed the Asian wildcard invite by BLAST. With an Israeli, Pole and an Aussie in the mix, Liquid shows up in the Asian VRS as well apart from the Americas VRS.

Complexity's General Manager, messioso is seen putting out a text message on discord saying "Supposedly liquid have received and accepted the Asia wildcard for BLAST" for which Liquid's VP, Tfs responds "Blame Valve". However, Tfs only confirmed that Liquid received the Asia wildcard invite but did not mention if the team accepted it.