Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
From Liquipedia Esports Wiki
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Game Information
Publisher:
Valve
Release Date(s):
2012-08-21
Links
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (often abbreviated as CS:GO) is a first-person, tactical shooter initially developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and released by Valve, with Valve later taking over development fully.
History[edit]
Gameplay[edit]
Competitive Format[edit]
Currently, there is no official Counter-Strike league or franchising/partnership system that has been introduced by Valve itself. An example of a partnership league in professional Counter-Strike is the ESL Pro Tour, with ESL having several partner teams play in their league while having some slots opened for qualifiers and their own team world ranking.
However, Valve does regularly sanction a high level tournament series known as the Major Championships, with the earliest instance of a Major happening during CS:GO at DreamHack Winter 2013. These tournaments are hosted by a number of prominent orginizations, such as ESL, PGL, and BLAST to name a few. As of 2018, the traditional format works as follows:
Major Status and the Regional Major Ranking (RMR)[edit]
Before PGL Stockholm Major, the method in which teams qualified for the Major Tournament was different. Before the RMR system was introduced, teams gained their Legend or Challenger status for the next Major through finishing in the top 8 or top 16 at the previous Championship event. Other teams qualified through winning the Minor Championships in their respective regions, which were: EU, NA, CIS, and Asia. The Minor Champions and Challenger status teams would then follow the current Major format of Challenger, Legends, and then Champions Stages.
However, ever since the Stockholm Major, Valve had introduced the new RMR system, which first started off as a point system where teams earned RMR points through placements at high tier tournaments, with the top 3 teams (2 for CIS) with the most RMR points being qualified to the Legends Stage automatically. In 2022, the CIS region merged with the EU region, whilst the RMR system also changed. First introduced for the PGL Antwerp Major, teams would compete in a Swiss Stage tournament to determine their seeding for the tournament, being divided into:
- European RMR A (4 Legend Status, 2 Challenger Status, 2 Contender Status)
- Ruropean RMR B (3 Legend Status, 5 Challenger Status)
- American RMR (1 Legend Status, 5 Challenger Status)
- Asia-Pacific RMR (2 Contender Status)
Teams would qualify for these RMR tournaments through even more in-depth regional qualifers. Currently, the RMR system is still being used for Valve's sponsored Major Tournaments, in order to determine the seeding of the teams in the next stages of the competition: The Challengers and Legends Stage.
The New Challengers Stage[edit]
Previously known as the Offline Qualifier, this stage contains 16 teams from the RMR's Challenger Status teams to compete in the Swiss Format, with the top 8 teams advancing to the New Legends Stage.
The New Legends Stage[edit]
Previously known as the Group Stage, the 8 teams from the New Challengers stage join the 8 prequalified teams from the previous major who compete in another Swiss System Format, with the top 8 teams advancing to the New Champions Stage.
The New Champions Stage[edit]
The 8 teams remaining from the New Challengers Stage compete in a Single-elimination bracket until only one team remains, which is crowed the Major Winners, one of the most illustrious and prestigious award to win in Counter-Strike.