BLAST discusses VRS’ impact and navigating the crowded CS2 calendar

2025 marked a significant shift in how the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) plays a role within the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports ecosystem.

Following the announcement earlier this year that tournament organiser StarLadder will host the next Major, Valve cancelled the Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs) for the event. As a result, VRS will be the sole determining factor in selecting the 32 teams competing at Counter-Strike’s biggest event. 

In fact, since the VRS system was first introduced in 2024, the Counter-Strike 2 esports ecosystem has undergone significant shifts that have affected its event calendar. 

Notable teams have been competing at smaller LAN events in a bid to secure more valuable points. Moreover, organisations in some cases have to decide which Tier 1 events to compete in, while tournament organisers attempt to attract the world’s biggest players to their tentpole competitions. 

This has even led to debates and comments surrounding the creation of a monopoly on events to prevent teams from attending select tournaments. 

Esports Insider reached out to Counter-Strike 2 event organiser BLAST to discuss the impact VRS is having on the CS2 ecosystem. 

Disclaimer: BLAST has noted to Esports Insider that its written answers reflect the view of the tournament organiser via ‘key speakers’ within the company.

In addition to Valve changing its approach to Major qualification, BLAST has also adjusted its strategy when organising events. 

“Valve Regional Standings has required us to be more robust when finalising teams, rather than just jumping to the next team,” highlighted the tournament organiser.  

“2025 is the first year post-partner programmes, so tournament organisers have had to work fitting tournaments into this jigsaw of a year.”

Like other tournament organisers operating Counter-Strike events, BLAST has struggled to attract some top teams to its events. Team Falcons decided not to compete at BLAST Bounty Season 2, citing minimal VRS impact due to the event format being split between online and offline matches. For BLAST Open London, Aurora Gaming declined the invite due to Counter-Strike’s ‘tight schedule’. 

In 2025, to accommodate to Counter-Strike’s new ecosystem, BLAST looked to bolster its team payment structure with the aim of making its tournaments an enticing prospect to organisations. However, despite these changes, the tournament organiser highlighted that its current payment model isn’t  ‘attractive’ to teams.

“Currently, BLAST’s VRS offering is not an attractive proposal for teams, with our team payments not contributing to VRS,” said the tournament organiser.

For the 2025 season, BLAST introduced participation fees, providing teams that compete at its events with a guaranteed income based on their rankings at the time they receive an invitation. Alongside participation fees, its Frequent Flyers Programme rewards teams that decide to compete in multiple BLAST-operated events throughout the year, with $2m (~£1.4m) being distributed at the end of the season. This system, however, will seemingly be altered in some way next year. 

The company added: “We’ve made changes to our 2026 circuit, which will also see our team payment structure also count towards VRS.”

Despite these hurdles, BLAST still says its current offering remains competitive as organisers look to recruit the best teams in the world to their events.

“We think our offering of team experience, team participation fees, and longevity in the scene puts us higher up the pecking order,” noted the organiser.

Counter-Strike esports’ recent developments have provided many tournament organisers with opportunities to host events, giving more teams than ever before the chance to compete at the highest levels across the world. However, this has created a highly congested Counter-Strike calendar, in which clashes can occur and teams must choose which events to accept. 

In September, PGL revealed it had altered the end date of its Masters Bucharest Final, creating a two-day gap between its event and ESL FACEIT Group-operated IEM Chengdu. In theory, the adjustment will enable teams looking to compete in both events an opportunity to travel from Romania to China.   

BLAST stated to Esports Insider that it has attempted to collaborate with other tournament organisers to create a sustainable tournament calendar where teams are able to participate in all events that are scheduled.

 “We’ve tried to have conversations with TO’s to work together on aligning a sustainable CS calendar, but sadly, there’s not been much interest in that. We’ve communicated our dates for 25, 26, and 27 clearly and with a long lead time so we can build out a robust plan.”

Despite the VRS forcing several tournament organisers to adjust scheduling and adapt to teams declining invites, the new structure aims to provide more competitive clarity to ensure the best teams compete. 

Ultimately, the VRS system is still relatively new; as such, Valve is continuing to adjust it to provide long-term stability within the Counter-Strike ecosystem. In February, the developer and publisher adjusted forfeit values, alongside changing how tournament data is recorded to avoid negatively impacting the ranking update timeframe. 

The recording of tournament data has caused issues throughout the year, with the likes of GamerLegion claiming it had missed out on event invitations as a result of the system failing to take prize money from previous events into account. 

June saw another adjustment to the VRS, with Valve opting to cancel the MRQs for the Budapest Major. The developer and publisher said a separate qualification process for the Major is unnecessary and disruptive.

Having VRS determine Major teams lowers the chance of an underdog team producing a Cinderella story of their own, an often praised part of Counter-Strike tournament structure. 

On the other hand, the newfound consistency of the system ensures the very best teams make it to Counter-Strike’s biggest event.

“Like any new system, the VRS has its challenges, but overall, it’s a positive step,” said BLAST. “Look at Lynn Vision and Nemiga Gaming’s run [at the BLAST.tv Austin Major]. Look at PaiN Gaming making it to the semi-finals after never qualifying for a Major playoffs.”

Whether fans, teams, players, or tournament organisers like the increased importance of the VRS, it is here to stay for the foreseeable future. 

BLAST and other organisers are already adapting to the new system, with a total of 26 Tier 1 events already scheduled for 2026. 

However, the dilemma of teams prioritising which events remain due to several tournaments overlapping or leaving no time to travel between them. While the VRS rewards teams achieving high levels of consistency throughout the year, it remains a headache for operators looking to recruit the best teams for its tournaments.