Valve confirms big changes for 2025 CS2 Majors

Valve has officially confirmed that the CS2 Majors format will change in 2025 and beyond with the end result being the number of teams expanding from 24 to 32.

The world’s biggest esports tournaments are popular the world over both for the prize money they offer to the winners and for the sense of achievement they give for beating the world’s top teams. The Valve-sponsored Majors are the most prestigious CS2 tournaments. These Counter-Strike 2 Majors are held approximately every six months and the winner is chosen based on the teams’ performance against the world’s best competition.

Top teams give their all in going against the best CS2 players and teams in a bid to be declared the winner. In October 2024, there were reports that Valve would make significant changes to the CS2 Majors format. In January 2025, Valve confirmed this by modifying its CS Major supplemental rulebook.

CS2 Majors to expand number of teams from 24 to 32

A change in Valve’s CS Major supplemental rulebook has confirmed the previous reports about CS2 major teams expanding from 24 to 32.

The main change that fans will see in the CS2 Majors will be the expansion of the number of teams participating. In addition, a third Legends Swiss stage will also be added to the Majors. The preexisting opening and elimination stages will remain in the competitions but the events will now run longer because of the addition of the third stage.

As reported previously, Valve is also removing the Regional Major Rankings qualifying system from the Majors system. In its place, Valve has announced the Major Regional Qualifiers, a new qualifying event.

The MRQ’s main highlight is that the events can potentially be held online. In these cases, the regions can be split as desired to include appropriate teams based on location. In addition, the MRQs will feature eight teams in Asia and 16 in the Americas and Europe.

The Asia MRQ will be awarded four spots in the CS2 Major’s first stage. The Americas and Europe MRQ will be awarded six spots each. Eight total teams that qualify in the MRQ will reach stage 2 of the Major.

These teams will join the eight teams that were directly invited to stage 2 of the tournament. A direct invite will be sent to the top 16 teams that reached stage 3 of the previous Major. In addition, one invite each will be sent to the top eight teams that reached the playoffs of the previous Major for stage 3.