PGL Belgrade 2025 to feature no qualifiers

12-4-2025 22:39

All sixteen teams slated to compete in the Serbian event will come directly from the VRS.

PGL have scrapped their Belgrade event's qualifiers

PGL have announced that PGL Belgrade 2025, set to run from October 25 to November 2, will not feature open qualifiers. Instead, the event's sixteen participants will be directly invited using the Valve Regional Standings.

This move brings PGL Belgrade in line with PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026, an event which the Romanian tournament organizer already announced would employ direct invites based on the VRS to determine participants.

PGL elected not to employ open qualifiers for the recent PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, but has utilized them for the ongoing PGL Bucharest 2025 and the upcoming PGL Astana 2025.

This move further cuts down the amount of opportunities available to teams via open qualifiers. In addition to PGL Belgrade, IEM Cologne, IEM Chengdu, BLAST Bounty Season 2, and BLAST Rivals Season 2 are also notable events in the latter half of the year that lack an open qualifier scheme.

Additionally, the Esports World Cup in August will have just one spot not allocated via the VRS, instead decided by the Hero Esports Asian Champions League, a Chinese LAN scheduled to run through May.

Good for them :) bad for the scene :(

2025-04-12 22:40

110

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS

231

11 replies

playing qualifiers against cheating mixes no qualifiers choose one

2025-04-12 22:44

10 replies

the first one 100%

2025-04-12 22:46

100

We need to improve the ACs

2025-04-12 22:47

6 replies

no AC is going to stop matchfixing and radar. A camera behind the players would do a far better job, but idk if PGL or other tournament organizers are willing to put the time and money to enforce such a rule.

2025-04-12 23:24

5 replies

Put the responsibility on the teams to do it else they can't compete.

2025-04-13 00:33

4 replies

yes but you need admins to watch and follow the footage. You however many bo3s played in a single day and the same team could play up to 3 bo3s in a single day so who is going to review the footage and make sure no one is cheating? At minimum 2 admins per match screen watching 24/7 and if the team isnt in a bootcamp that is 5 different views per team. If you review the footage later you can get a team, but you fuck over a team that lost to cheaters beforehand. I do agree it cant cost that much to get the cameras (could just use their phones), but idk about logistics or if allow would allow TOs to mandate such a rule for CQs and OQs.

2025-04-13 01:00

3 replies

i don't think you would need to be monitoring them all 24/7 for it to be somewhat effective. It would act as a deterrent and you'd be able to rewatch the video records if a team is suspicious. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

2025-04-13 05:21

1 reply

We can only hope that TOs begin to take steps like this one to combat the issues that plague t2/3.

2025-04-13 05:55

This is actually a great Idea. And like #67 says, you don't actually need to watch the footage live. It will still act as a deterrent, as people will know they're being recorded

2025-04-13 10:25

would you rather shut up or shut up choose one

2025-04-12 22:48

Who the fuck wants to watch the same 12 teams every event That's boring as fuck

2025-04-12 23:49

one of the choices of all time

ok but who asked?

Just why?

2025-04-12 22:41

game is dead

Lame

2025-04-12 22:42

who cares Faze not winning this

fuck this, qualifiers are extremely fun to watch and introduce new teams that arent just the top 16

2025-04-12 22:43

sad for TNL and fnatic

2025-04-13 08:39

Pride of Serbia will be able to play versus the best n1 Spirit

zzzzzzz

2025-04-12 22:45

Really putting that L in PGL

what is the reasoning for this?

8 replies

running qualifiers costs money

2025-04-12 22:54

7 replies

Tbh this is probably the main reason. I bet there are people within PGL pissed about this while some higher up buisness person is happy to pinch pennies because all they care about is the bottom line and not the esport itself.

2025-04-12 23:06

just dont stream them, what is the cost? running servers or what

2025-04-12 23:17

having admins on payroll to set the games up and oversee them, I guess

2025-04-12 23:35

I mean I guess that is a perspective, but it seems silly given they are having 1.25 million dollars prizepool for studio tournaments :D

2025-04-12 23:56

2 replies

that's exactly the reason, they're putting a lot of money into these tournaments, they probably realized that having qualifiers hurts their profit

2025-04-13 00:26

yes, but cutting down 100k from the prizepool would definitely made much bigger difference than cutting down the opportunities for lower tier teams. But who am I to judge, it is just weird they annouce it without explaining the decision

2025-04-13 00:30

what a joke

2025-04-13 10:24

2025-04-12 22:49

ITS BIG TEAMS PRESSURING THEM, THEY WANT EVERY ORGANISER TO BE ESL

fook vrs

2025-04-12 22:51

great I love when our events don't have the best teams right now that's perfect

2025-04-12 22:52

Shame Shame Shame Shame

fuck esl

2025-04-12 23:05

That's why the ranking exists doesn't it?

2025-04-12 23:10

no complexity has qualified and made semis apogee made 2-3 score so no stories like that next time

2025-04-12 23:32

No guarantee that something of a Cinderella run would happen to a top 30 team, so top 16 get invites and if you're good enough to qualify better fight to be among those top 16, that's the qualifier.

2025-04-12 23:38

How can someone enter to top16 and get invites to tournaments If tournaments are invite only?

2025-04-13 04:22

And how to get top16 vrs? Playing online tournaments against radar cheaters? Xd

2025-04-13 07:55

wtf

2025-04-12 23:25

L move

2025-04-12 23:26

Gosh how could you even pull such a horrible move, t2 has been cooked for long time and now it gets even worse for thrm

2025-04-12 23:30

common PGL L

2025-04-12 23:39

Enforce some minimum % of spots that are possible to get to through open qualis pls volvo :)

2025-04-12 23:41

yea this is shit, org like Big getting invites all the times just because they have money to play in tier 1 events they are always staying top 20 when they shouldn't even be in top 50...

2025-04-12 23:43

That’s how it should be. Online qualifiers make no sense as long as cheating is such a big issue.

2025-04-12 23:50

how do you as a top 20 team get into tier 1 then

2025-04-13 00:44

you do what Falcons did

2025-04-13 00:48

falcons aren't a ~top 20 team dumas

2025-04-13 00:49

It seems that he meant "you buy another team". But that way you get the same team/core, just under a different branding.

2025-04-17 11:15

2025-04-12 23:52

this is so gay

2025-04-13 00:06

Boring

2025-04-13 00:13

and there goes competitiveness, only invites

2025-04-13 00:17

that is a very unfortunate decision

2025-04-13 00:43

Valve shouldn't allow this bs

2025-04-13 01:04

80% of complainers gonna watch anyway lol

2025-04-13 01:21

Huge BS

2025-04-13 01:22

L Pgl.

2025-04-13 01:48

yessssss nepotism

2025-04-13 02:24

ESL trying to create again partnership tournaments in all way possible .... they know the tier 1 teams would be almost always around top 16 and dont want no names in their tournament and now the other orgs need to do the same because are blackmailes by top teams they would boycott their events ( and i dont blame the teams ) you risk to lose a lot of points if by surprise you lose against one of this teams , you get a better market share if you play against a better ranked team than no namer and as well you have more chances to get your spot in event because you would always be in top 16 . Once again Tier 1 won but this make almost no difference than having again partner teams , Valve big L because ESL promote this and broke the rules in all way possible but they took no actions and now all the TO's would need to do the same if they want the top teams not to boycott them

2025-04-13 02:26

Its PGL. nt

2025-04-13 05:07

learn to read In addition to PGL Belgrade, IEM Cologne, IEM Chengdu, BLAST Bounty Season 2, and BLAST Rivals Season 2 are also notable events in the latter half of the year that lack an open qualifier scheme

2025-04-13 06:15

Are Blast and PGL are related with ESL? What the hell are you talking about it. They are different org. I already read.

2025-04-13 06:40

are you dumb or what ? who the hell is doing IEM events ?!

2025-04-13 07:11

Read your comment again and talk.

2025-04-13 07:13

I get where you coming from now but if you dont know what i mean with that its pointless for me to explain to you now , I recommend reviewing recent reports from Richard Lewis for additional insight. In essence, ESL appears to be navigating Valve's regulations to reestablish a partner league system, subtly pushing boundaries. Other tournament organizers, like PGL, are compelled to adapt to remain competitive. This is evident in the reported boycotts of PGL events by top teams, likely due to PGL's distinct approach. As a result, PGL has had to adjust their prize pools and invitation systems to align more closely with industry trends.

2025-04-13 15:07

At least closed qualifiers from different regions

2025-04-13 03:10

Good If a team wants to make a tier 1 lan they should grind up to top 16 VRS first

2025-04-13 03:59

Pgl tier 1? I aren't think that

2025-04-13 05:26

HUGE L

2025-04-13 04:53

W finally thank you valve

2025-04-13 07:33

qualifier are fun, bring them back my dudes.. you are starting to be unfun

2025-04-13 07:51

this majorly sucks. open qualifiers are a must have

2025-04-13 08:49

so much for the open circuit :p but the tournament operators really dont have enough incentives to organize quals

2025-04-13 09:11

Hi guys, I’m the audio guy at PGL Major. I wanted to express how honored I am to be the first deaf audio engineer at a CS2 tournament in history. Thank you PGL for this amazing opportunity, and I’ll try my best!

2025-04-13 15:24