Several big tournament organizers, including ESL, PGL and BLAST have received exceptions to continue their events despite failing to fully comply with Valve’s rulebook.
Valve has granted exemptions to a few 2025 tournaments that fail to meet certain criteria. The exempted tournaments include those by ESL, BLAST, PGL, and more. Here’s the complete list along with the type of exception they have received from Valve for 2025.
Valve has outlined a list of requirements, called “Tournament Operation Requirements,” for organizers to follow if they wish to host events in 2025. However, a number of event organizers do not fall in line with these requirements. Some of these organizers have been granted exceptions by Valve in a newly released document on their Github page.
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Which events have received exceptions for 2025?
In a new update to their Counter-Strike rules and regulations page on GitHub, Valve has granted 12 tournament exceptions for 2025. The reason for the exceptions vary with each event, some requiring allowances for format, while others might see shorter duration events.
The following are exceptions we have explicitly made, because they give the tournament operator some flexibility, tend to produce more sorting data than the minimum requirements of our guidelines, and most importantly, do not go against the spirit of the requirements.
- ESL Pro League Season 21: May directly invite some teams based on their performance in previous Pro League Seasons.
- ESL Pro League Season 22: The event may invite additional wildcard rosters to the closed qualifier.
- IEM Dallas: NA and SA may be applied as VRS filters despite not being official regions.
- EWC 2025: May invite the winner of Hero Esports ACL in lieu of one VRS invitation.
- BLAST Rivals: May run one Wildcard event after two Tier 1 events instead of three.
- BLAST Open: May run regional VRS qualifiers to fill four positions in lieu of VRS invitations for position 13-16 in their event. The qualifiers cover Europe, Asia, NA, and SA.
- Each qualifier covers at least 16 VRS teams beyond those already invited to the event, in the respective region.
- NA and SA are applied as VRS filters despite not being official regions, provided each receive an equal number of invitations to the main event and 16+ VRS invitations to the qualifier.
- PGL Bucharest: May Run regional VRS qualifiers to fill four positions in lieu of VRS invitations for positions 13-16 in their event. The qualifiers cover Europe, Asia, NA and SA.
- Each qualifier covers at least 16 VRS teams beyond those already invited to the event, in the respective region.
- NA and SA are applied as VRS filters despite not being official regions, provided each receive an equal number of invitations to the main event and 16+ VRS invitations to the qualifier.
- PGL Astana: May run regional VRS qualifiers to fill four positions in lieu of VRS invitations for positions 13-16 in their event. The qualifiers cover Europe, Asia, NA and SA.
- Each qualifier covers at least 16 VRS teams beyond those already invited to the event, in the respective region.
- NA and SA are applied as VRS filters despite not being official regions, provided each receive an equal number of invitations to the main event and 16+ VRS invitations to the qualifier.
- PGL Belgrade: May run regional VRS qualifiers to fill four positions in lieu of VRS invitations for positions 13-16 in their event. The qualifiers cover Europe, Asia, NA, and SA.
- Each qualifier covers at least 16 VRS teams beyond those already invited to the event, in the respective region.
- NA and SA are applied as VRS filters despite not being official regions, provided each receive an equal number of invitations to the main event and 16+ VRS invitations to the qualifier.
- Hero Esports ACL: May run a Tier 1 Asia event announced after the deadline has passed.
- Launders LAN: May announce/operate with shorter timeframe than required for Tier 2 events
- BrisVegas LAN: May announce/operate with shorter timeframe than required for Tier 2 events.
The list of events includes several big events hosted by the three big tournament organizers in BLAST, PGL as well as ESL. ESL Pro League Season 21 & 22 have been granted exceptions due to some changes in their format. BLAST and PGL may run regional VRS qualifiers to fill some of the team positions for their events. Launders and BrisVegas LAN have been allowed to operate tournaments with a shorter timeframe than that required for Tier 2 events.
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