Counter-Strike is one of the longest-running
and most popular esports titles, with more
than 15 years of history.
The most recent iteration, Global Offensive,
better known as CS:GO, started seeing pro
play in 2012.
Top contenders hail from North America, South
America, Europe, CIS, and Australia, with
Europe dominating most of the tournaments.
There is no primary CS:GO league that teams
consistently compete in.
The scene is almost completely open, with
tournament organizers hosting events whenever
and wherever they want, and teams picking
the tournaments they want to participate in
or attempt to qualify for.
Large LAN tournaments like DreamHack, ESL
One, and IEM are sprinkled throughout the
year, usually over a single weekend, with
teams either being invited or qualifying based
on their stature and past performance.
Generally speaking, tournaments with prize
pools of 250k plus are considered premier
events and usually include the best teams.
The rest of the year, teams participate in
smaller weekly leagues that are held entirely
online, so they can compete remotely.
Currently, the Esports Championship Series,
or ECS, run by FACEIT, and the ESL Pro League
are the two main online leagues, each with
their own separate NA and EU divisions.
Each league has at least 8 weeks of play,
followed by playoffs, giving teams consistent
opportunity for competition throughout the
year.
Last year, a new type of weekly tournament
was introduced.
ELEAGUE, hosted by Turner Sports, holds their
competition in person and broadcasts some
matches on television.
This is a major deviation from the traditional
weekly league format, as it requires teams
to travel to the ELEAGUE studios in Atlanta,
Georgia, instead of competing online from
their homes.
Of course, not all tournaments are created
equal.
Whether you’re a big or small team, there’s
one type of event you don’t want to miss:
the Majors.
The Major Championships are hosted 2 or 3
times each year and are officially endorsed
by Valve, the developers of CS:GO.
They feature million-dollar prize pools and
are the most prestigious and hyped events
in the entire CS:GO scene.
One interesting thing to note is that Valve
does not directly run any of these tournaments,
though they do decide on the rules and who
can or cannot play.
They also give their blessing in the form
of money, in-game items, and infrastructural
support to these independent organizers.
To participate in a Major, you must either
be one of the top 8 teams from the last Major
or qualify through the Minor system.
There are 4 Minors for every Major--one each
for the regions of CIS, Europe, Americas and
Asia.
Each Minor includes 8 teams, hailing from
invites and open or closed qualifiers.
Two teams typically advance out of each Minor,
though this number can sometimes change due
to exceptional circumstances--roster swaps,
for example.
The advanced Minor teams then move on to a
new tournament, the “Major Qualifier”,
and compete against the teams in the bottom
half of the standings from the previous Major.
Half of them get to move on, and thus, along
with the 8 teams that auto-qualified by being
in the top half of the last Major, brings
the total participants of each Major to 16.
Major Championships last about a week, during
which qualifying teams compete in a Group
Stage, playoffs, and finals until a single
winner is crowned and achieves the title of
the world’s best CS:GO team.
That is, until the next Major.
