CS:GO teams, players will be forced to disclose partnerships for Majors in 2020

Participants that don't disclose will be disqualified.

CSGO promotional art featuring CT model.
Image via Valve

Teams and players that wish to attend Valve-sponsored championships will need to publicly disclose their business relationships with other participants or the tournament organizer, Valve revealed today. Participants that don’t disclose this information will likely be disqualified for the Major.

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Valve says it wants to evaluate each situation and determine if there is a conflict of interest. “So that public conversations can be had about the value that leagues and other entanglements offer versus the risk that they pose,” Valve said.

This new requirement comes two months after Valve addressed conflict of interest and exclusivity in CS:GO on a blog post called “Keeping Things Competitive.” In that post, Valve said that it is not interested in providing licenses to exclusive tournaments, with restricted teams.

Valve’s new rule will make it harder for tournament organizers to own teams. Astralis, the best CS:GO team in the world was controlled by RFRSH until July, a company that also organizes the BLAST Pro Series circuit.

That said, a tournament organizer isn’t prohibited to own a team. Companies, on the other hand, can’t operate two different CS:GO teams.

Author
Image of Leonardo Biazzi
Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.