Editorial: Six-team playoff brackets need to go

Some of the biggest events in the world rob us of two arena matches. It's time for that to stop.

Arenas are the ultimate litmus test for teams, a place where players are thrown into a roaring lion's den and scrutinized under bright lights with nowhere to hide. A select few become talismans when they take the stage; some veterans are the showmen, while many are just part of the pack.

And then there are those who weaken, becoming prey; shadows of the players they were when pressure was off in the group stage.

It is where pressure is the highest, where the safety net of a lower bracket is stripped away, and where a chance at glory becomes tantalizingly real. Where those players who might shrink to the corners when first tossed in the den are offered the chance to gain the experience needed to take steps out of the shadows through repeated exposure.

It is Counter-Strike at its best and most raw. Why, then, have we grown accustomed to being robbed of more of that spectacle?

Six-team playoff brackets have become the norm in Counter-Strike, used by ESL and BLAST in almost all of their events. Two "quarter-finals" lead into semi-finals, where two teams that won an extra group stage match after already qualifying for playoffs, against another team that also already qualified for playoffs, are waiting.

Even IEM Cologne and IEM Katowice (soon IEM Kraków), the events considered by many as the closest in glory to the Majors, suffer from this condition.

PGL's return to the calendar and Majors offer the only glimpses of what once was the norm, when teams weren't simply gifted a chance for a better result without challenging the roar of the crowd.

From an organizer's side, it makes sense. A true playoff bracket, with four quarter-finals and no direct semi-finals berth, requires either a costly extra day in an arena to split the quarter-finals or a packed day with four best-of-three series. The former option is not an appealing one for tournament operators already bleeding capital, and the latter results in a lengthy day for the broadcast crew and the teams waiting to play — less so with MR12, but a consideration all the same.

But competitively and narratively, it is a travesty.

Teams can look unbeatable in a studio but collapse on stage, and players can go from stars to silent. The "studio merchants" moniker followed MOUZ for over a year, and now Aurora are struggling to overcome that same tag. The Turks were one of the teams that skipped straight to the semi-finals at BLAST Open Lisbon after a strong group stage, but stumbled against MOUZ once on stage.

Azbayar "⁠Senzu⁠" Munkhbold disappeared under the bright lights in early playoff appearances, leaving The MongolZ bereft of their star when it mattered most, and only overcame it before the Austin Major.

The only way past this hurdle is through raw exposure — no matter what MOUZ might tell you about simulated crowd noise at their bootcamp facility — and The MongolZ and MOUZ are living proof.

With only two quarter-finals, some teams are cheated of that chance entirely, those with less experience left to spend years chasing just a taste of the action. Those who level up in an arena have fewer chances to showcase it, and teams that perform in a lower-stakes group stage match are gifted with an immense advantage.

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That is, perhaps, one of the most egregious parts of this format we've grown so accustomed to. Allowing a team to win two group stage matches to qualify for the arena and then secure a top-four berth by beating a third team in the upper bracket final, avoiding an entire match in the arena and all the pressure, stakes, and prestige that comes with it, is a farce.

An arena is everything, yet it is not a test dealt equally to those who would conquer it. And whether players will admit it or not, the motivation to win, fear, and pressure when playing in that safe group stage match are a fraction of what you'd feel with elimination on the line in a quarter-final on stage.

True, those who top the group stage are often the best in the world anyway. But is it fair to elevate them so far past the rest, avoid an arena match entirely and deny a lower-ranked team that might clinch the seventh or eighth spot in an arena the chance to put up a fight at least? Outside of Vitality's dominant Spring season, teams are more even than ever, and that mettle should be tested where Counter-Strike is at its best.

We've grown so accustomed to this being the norm. This version of the format has been in use since Katowice 2018 and is now employed for almost all of ESL's events.

Before that, teams used to skip to the semi-final based on topping round-robin groups, so while what we have now is an improvement, it is a makeshift one.

BLAST's eight-team events with a six-team playoff bracket are an even worse offender. A single win in the group stage means you are through to the arena, two put you through to the semi-finals, and only two teams from the field miss out.

You could say that the other two are given a chance to play in an arena that otherwise would have had just four teams, the very thing I push for above, but often these events are attended by the top teams that are already staples in the playoffs of the biggest tournaments — so really, it is just more of the same.

That format remains in action in 2025 through BLAST Rivals, while BLAST's Open tournaments have copied ESL's 16-team format. Lisbon was the first with it on display, before BLAST Open London became a distinct outlier and the worst offender by playing its group stage online. Teams that won three online matches skipped straight to the semi-final, and again just six teams headed to the OVO Wembley Arena to take the stage.

The Majors and PGL's events, using Swiss group stages, are among the few that still boast a true eight-team playoff bracket, and I thank them for it. Seeing teams actually tested, given new opportunities, and not having to watch the same, dull group stage framing, tournament after tournament, is a blessing.

Imagine if in Austin, The MongolZ, a 3-2 team, missed a six-team playoffs and weren't given the chance to prove themselves on stage against FaZe? What if Spirit never played MOUZ in the quarter-finals because they went 3-0 in the group stage and skipped to the semis, or paiN weren't able to build upon their first arena appearance at PGL Cluj-Napoca by beating FURIA?

Playing in the eight-team arena playoffs in Cluj gave Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt's side some crucial experience under the lights before the Major, an opportunity that is far harder to come by when the two biggest organizers in the scene are operating a playoff with 25% fewer teams than a traditional bracket.

I used the Major scenario as an intentional false analogy; its format is not that of ESL's or BLAST's. It is to illustrate what their formats deny us and just how accustomed to them we have become, to show how nonsensical it would be if applied to something like the Major.

Why then, do we sit content with the Colognes, Katowices, $1 million IEMs, and BLAST events that use them ad infinitum? Surely there is a better solution.

Neither ESL or BLAST has tried running a day with four quarter-finals in an arena, and there are options to condense time between games. Multiple setups with a rotating stage would allow for the next teams to warm up on the same PCs they'll play on during the game, which could cut down the time the organizers have promised to give teams before their games.

It's not even an unfamiliar one for ESL, which ran that very setup for the group stage of IEM Katowice 2019. And with MR12 reducing the length of games and a few shorter breaks, four best-of-threes in a day is not out of the realm of possibility.

PGL and FISSURE have already proved the concept, operating several tournaments with eight-team brackets that kept the ground level for all playoff teams, legitimizing runs and offering more stage matchups for fans and players alike.

BLAST and ESL could comfortably operate their formats during their duopoly, but competition is rife among the organizers again. True playoff brackets are returning all around them, elevating the quality of Counter-Strike being played, and it's time to catch up for the good of the game.