Valve unexpectedly canceled the Major qualifiers, changing the rules

Valve announced that qualifications for StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 have been canceled. Now all 32 participants of the tournament will be determined solely by the VRS (Valve Regional Standings) rating system. Teams will receive invitations on October 8, as it was planned earlier.

Counter-Strike 2 developers explained that the goal of VRS implementation is to create a unified and transparent selection system, which will allow to integrate tournaments from the community with the majors. According to them, a separate qualification process has proven to be unnecessary and even a hindrance.

"One of the goals of the VRS is to standardize championships from the community so that they can be integrated with the majors. At this point, we believe that a separate qualification process for majors is unnecessary and in the way"

Thus, the fall MRQ 2025 (Major Regional Qualifiers) are completely canceled, and teams will have to rely only on their results in the ranking system to get to the main tournament of the season.

This decision came as a surprise to many in the community and will likely affect the calendar of upcoming tournaments and the teams' strategy for the rest of the season.