How tier-2 CS descended into chaos in the game's new era

Four tournaments have had their ranked status removed after failing to comply with Valve's new rules.

Valve announced in July 2024 a rulebook for hosting licensed events from 2025. It was supposed to mark the start of a new era in Counter-Strike, one without the partner leagues that had made up most of the event calendar for years. "Counter-Strike is at its best when teams compete on a level playing field and when ability is the only limit to their success," the developer argued.

And yet, just three weeks into 2025, the invite process for tier-2 CS events still lacks transparency.

CCT Season 2 European Series #16 and YaLLa Compass Winter, the first tier-2 events of the year in Europe, are facing intense scrutiny for their invites, with many teams overlooked despite meeting the ranking requirements in Valve's Regional Standings (VRS).

HLTV spoke with representatives of ten European teams (Nexus, ECLOT, Partizan, NAVI Junior, Zero Tenacity, FAVBET, Betclic, UNiTY, Leo and RUSH B) deemed ineligible for an invite by CCT for Season 16. They all received an email from the tournament organizer that included the following passage: "We are informing you today that, according to rule 4.3 of CCT's Rulebook, we sadly can not extend an invitation at this time."

Section 4.3 of the CCT rulebook covers the tournament's "invite exceptions," which range from a ban issued by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) to simple misconduct. These are the exceptions outlined by CCT:

> Rulebook violations and/or misconduct.
> Team and/or player(s) are subject to a ban for integrity concerns by third party esports bodies (such as ESIC); or the team is subject to an active integrity flag which identifies a potential risk to the integrity of the competition by the organizer, third party esports bodies or Valve, or the team is subject to a ban or restriction imposed by Valve.
> The core team roster (at least 3 players) differs from the roster published in the designated version of the VRS used on the Invite Date.
> One organization fields multiple rosters that are eligible to receive an invite according to the designated version of the VRS on the Invite Date, e.g. a Main and an Academy roster. In this case, the organisation may choose one (1) roster to accept the invite.
> One or more players including stand ins is under 16 years old.
> Any team, organisation, or player of that team whose actions, affiliations, ownership or reputation are reasonably deemed by the organizer or Valve to bring the tournament into disrepute

Teams weren't informed of the specific reason that applied to them, and their requests for clarification were ignored by CCT. However, most of them told HLTV they suspected an obscure shadow-ban system to be the reason behind their exclusion.

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"I feel wasted as a person," Łukasz "⁠mwlky⁠" Pachucki tells HLTV. "I spent my whole life trying to be better, and I'm getting accused of something like this shit. I'm a religious person, and it's not acceptable to be accused of something I didn't do.

"It's like someone is laughing at your face and trying to destroy you."

mwlky sank into a depressive state in 2024 after learning that the doors to many tier-two teams were slammed shut because of a shadow-ban in tier-2 tournaments sponsored by GRID, a Berlin-based data company.

He believes he first landed on a list of bad actors in 2023, when he played for a Polish team called ORKS, which featured other players that, sources said, are also barred from competing in CCT tournaments, which are commissioned by GRID.

The existence of a blacklist in CCT has long been a talking point in the scene, with many players openly discussing the matter on social media.

HLTV spoke with three people with knowledge of CCT's operations, who confirmed tournament invites were vetted by GRID's integrity team.

One source said GRID has a communication channel with betting companies that is used to exchange information on abnormal betting patterns. Based on this, the integrity department assigns a specific category to each CS team, with the lowest category meaning that the team should not be invited to tournaments, regardless of their position in the ranking.

"We created a shortlist of the teams we wanted to invite, sent them to the integrity team, they rated the list and then we started reaching out to the teams," the source said. This information was corroborated by another source.

GRID has made no secret that it has built a large integrity database over the years. In an October 2022 guest article published on the Esports Insider, JingJie Luo, the company's Head of Integrity, wrote that GRID "can assist against match-fixing by collecting these data points."

"The database serves as a long-term project for GRID and provides further insights into match-fixing patterns, hopefully allowing the company to identify teams with integrity concerns," he added.

Being flagged as an integrity risk can be career-ending for many players, given that CCT runs some of the biggest tournaments in the tier-2 space. Moreover, a source said that other, smaller tournament organizers often looked at CCT as a "moral compass" when it came to handing out invites. "They thought that, if a team isn't getting invited [to CCT], there is probably something wrong with it," the source said.

Still, there have been some rare cases of teams being taken off GRID's blacklist. Two sources said Monte were blacklisted at one point because of Sergiy "⁠DemQQ⁠" Demchenko, who had been part of the controversial Akuma team.

"Monte were blacklisted for several months before their good results earned them a second chance," one source explained. A former Monte player confirmed to HLTV that the team used to have issues getting invites to tournaments.

In order to avoid legal action, a source said, CCT almost never explicitly told blacklisted teams they were suspected of posing a risk to a tournament's integrity. That is why its rulebook included a clause stating that CCT reserved "the right to deny participation at its sole discretion of any player involved in present or past actions that could potentially harm the integrity of the competition." (That clause is not included in the most recent version of the rulebook.)

Until the end of 2024, CCT was free to pick and choose which teams could play in its circuit without disclosing the reasons for their invites.

But to operate ranked events from 2025, tournament organizers must comply with Valve's regulations. This means that, in most cases, invites have to be determined by the VRS and that, should a team not be invited, the organizer must "publish the details of any disqualification decision at the time it occurs."

With betting companies being a vital part of the esports ecosystem, it is easy to see why integrity databases like GRID's exist to protect esports from match-fixing. "These efforts serve to combat compromised betting markets that pop up, reducing the profits of match-fixers and cohorts," GRID's JingJie Luo wrote in that guest article.

Several sources told HLTV they understand why GRID would try to keep teams flagged as an integrity risk away from tournaments in which it is involved.

However, the absence of a neutral third party verifying this data raises questions about whether due process is followed, especially since there is no appeal procedure and players' requests for information are often ignored.

Contacted by HLTV, a spokesperson for ESIC provided the following comment:

“ESIC has been aware of the concerns regarding CCT’s use of its own integrity database to make decisions about tournament invitations. At present, CCT is not an ESIC member, but it has expressed a strong desire to collaborate with ESIC.

"ESIC strongly advocates for independent, transparent, and proven integrity systems. The principles of due process and fairness are foundational to esports, and we encourage tournament organizers to work with ESIC to verify and manage integrity-related decisions. This approach avoids potential conflicts of interest and ensures trust among all stakeholders, including players, teams, and fans.

"We are proud that our ESIC member tournament organizers, such as ESL FACEIT Group, BLAST, Hero Esports, NODWIN Gaming, LVP MediaPro and others, have adopted and implemented ESIC’s integrity frameworks which are global best practices.

"Following dialogue with CCT, we understand that the organizer is actively working on the manner in which it communicates its competitive integrity-related decisions, including taking new measures such as joining ESIC’s membership and implementing ESIC’s best practice standards. We welcome these changes and consider them a fruitful step in the right direction.”

There has also been inconsistency in the way CCT has followed its integrity database. Johnny Speeds told HLTV they were "blocked" from competing in CCT, yet their players, as Ludwig "⁠Luddie⁠" Hall pointed out on X, were able to play for other teams in these tournaments.

William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin, one of Johnny Speeds' players, recognizes the absurdity of the situation. The Swedish team disbanded at the end of 2024 after an unsuccessful search for an organization. Months earlier, the team had broken into the top 40 in the world rankings.

draken says that, after being ignored by CCT's admins for several months, his team finally got an explanation for why they kept being left out of these tournaments. "Regarding the recent request for participation in the Tour, we have received several reports from our partner network on teams players of Johnny Speeds were previously a part of," the message read. "These reports constitute a risk to the integrity of the competition and are therefore taken seriously."

"They kept us out of CCT, which is the biggest tournament to play in tier-2/tier-3 to break into tier-1," draken says. "So it definitely affected our team, which then affected our lives."

After his ORKS spell, there was also a period when mwlky was allowed back in CCT tournaments while playing for Project G. He suspects CCT put him back on its blacklist after he played three matches for GhoulsW, a mix team headlined by former G2 member François "⁠amanek⁠" Delaunay.

After leaving Entropiq in July 2024, mwlky was told he would not be allowed to play for Permitta as a stand-in in the Thunderpick World Championship 2024 EU Closed Qualifier, a tournament sponsored by GRID.

Earlier this month, Anonymo's Hubert "⁠Nami⁠" Mikoś also attempted to register mwlky for the CCT Season 2 Europe Series 16 Closed Qualifier.

"Nothing has changed since our last response about it, rulebook 3.3," an admin said.

Nami responded that the team would find another player.

After several years climbing the CS ladder, mwlky now works for a local parcel delivery firm to make ends meet. "I can get used to it, but I will not be happy," he says.

Playing CS, he says, is what gives him a purpose in life. He has bought a new computer and is back on the grind, playing several games on FACEIT every day. He still holds hope that one day his name will be cleared.

"I didn't do anything wrong, ever, ever, ever," he says. "People who know me know I'm the most loving person in CS. I would play nine hours of practice a day and then I would play FACEIT for another five hours.

"I just love this game. I would never do anything wrong. There needs to be some justice. It's not fair."

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The invite process for the different stages of YaLLa Compass Winter has also come under question, with at least six teams overlooked for invites. Some of those teams were the same that CCT excluded.

NAVI Junior, Iberian Soul (formerly KOI), Fire Flux, UNiTY, CPH Wolves and Spirit Academy all confirmed to HLTV that they were not invited to the tournament. Five of those teams were ranked higher than JANO, BC.Game and Betclic — the three lowest-ranked teams invited by YaLLa Esports — on the day the invites were determined (December 18).

Moreover, YaLLa Esports defined the first three stages of Compass — Contenders, Main and Playoffs — as an open qualifier despite them all being invite-only.

In the eyes of the organizers, this allowed them to take advantage of Valve's 3.1.2 rule, which states that a licensee "can use any criteria that in good faith are reasonable and transparent, and do not specifically target individual Rosters or Teams. Acceptable criteria include demographics and region (e.g. "Female Rosters based in Canada")."

But rather than running open qualifiers for teams from a certain demographic and region as a whole, YaLLa Esports claims it used this specific criteria for select invites. That might include country of origin and unique criteria such as "best female team in the region," the organizers said. This is in violation of Valve's rulebook as tournament organizers cannot use filtered versions of the VRS for tier-1 events and their qualifiers.

On January 15, Metizport announced they had withdrawn from YaLLa Compass "because of a lack of openness and accountability in their invitation process." The Swedish team had been invited to the Contenders stage of the event.

"Over the past few days, we've raised valid concerns with YaLLa Compass," Metizport said in a statement. "Sadly, their answers have often been deflected, ignored or even verge on gaslighting. This goes against our values and trust we want to build in the esports community."

HLTV contacted Valve for a comment on this matter. The developer said the issues described regarding YaLLa Compass sound "well outside the bounds of what we'd consider a ranked event," and that unless CCT becomes "more transparent" about why some teams were excluded, the event cannot be considered ranked.

Valve then instructed HLTV to mark both events as unranked.

Since HLTV reached out to Valve, the developer has also asked to set CCT SA Series 6 and CCT NA Series 4 to unranked.

In North America, CCT seemingly broke the rules by inviting nine unranked teams to finalize the group stage. According to Valve's rulebook, "in the event that there are fewer eligible VRS rosters than the number of announced Direct VRS Invites, Licensee may supplement with Open Qualifiers at their discretion."

In South America, HLTV identified at least one violation. Atrix fielded a roster with only two members of the lineup invited on December 31, failing to meet the core requirements.

With these tournament losing their ranked status, it is unclear if they will still run as planned. HLTV knows many teams have expressed concern about this development and are considering canceling their participation.

CCT has seemingly changed its invite stance since HLTV began its investigation into this matter. Several teams overlooked for Season 16 have contacted HLTV saying they have been invited to Season 17.

The declassification of these events adds to what has been a rocky start to the new season. On January 14, Dust2 Brasil reported that Frost and Fire South America Season 1 was considered a ranked tournament although it did not follow Valve's rules for invite procedure and announcement and publication of tournament information. The tournament, which started on December 13 and ran until January 12, was not granted an exception by Valve.

HLTV reached out to YaLLa Esports with questions about why certain teams were overlooked for invites, the open qualifier misclassification, and whether the invitation rules would be changed in the future.

Teemu Koski, YaLLa Esports' Chief Growth Officer, provided the following statement:

“At YaLLa Esports, we are committed to being a transparent and equal opportunity player within the Counter-Strike ecosystem.

"In line with our continued efforts to maintain openness and integrity across our business operations, the nature of YaLLa Compass Winter 2025 will now be reclassified as a standalone tournament in compliance with the regulations set forth by Valve.

"As the rules surrounding the invitation process continue to evolve for the benefit of the Counter-Strike community, we remain dedicated to ensuring our invitation process aligns with Valve’s guidelines – now and in the future.”

In a follow-up message, Koski said YaLLa Esports is working on a solution with Valve and hopes to provide an update shortly.

HLTV reached out to CCT with questions about why certain teams were excluded, the vetting process from GRID's integrity team, and Valve's comments about the lack of transparency in the invites.

CCT provided the following statement:

"The CCT welcomes the newly introduced system and its intention to professionalize the space and raise standards across the entire CS2 circuit.

"Our highest priority is compliance with Valve regulations, as well as maintaining the integrity of our competitions.

"Where appropriate, CCT aims to refine its processes, in order to achieve more clarity for participants and the community."

CCT added that it will provide more details on the matter soon.