The VRS impact of FPG2 and StarSeries Fall

NER0cs

22-9-2025 15:30

Liquid have gone from outsiders to 14th in the world after making the semi-final in Twistzz's swansong.

FISSURE Playground 2

We start with Liquid's whopping total of 357 points gained from FISSURE Playground 2.

Pre-event, Liquid were as low as 29th in the VRS, but they have since climbed seven places to put their Major attendance beyond doubt. As leaving presents go, it wasn't a bad effort from the 1.25-rated Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken.

The event also handed a chance for Virtus.pro to recover their season, and, though they did not make playoffs, two wins in Serbia has them back as one of the 16 EU teams projected to receive a Budapest Major invite.

FURIA were already safe when it came to starting the Major in Stage 3, but winning here has put themselves into the top four and are only three points behind Vitality on the global VRS.

This week also saw The MongolZ claim top spot from Vitality after a second grand final in successive Big Events.

StarLadder StarSeries Fall

StarLadder's Budapest event was perhaps even more significant when it came to the Major invites: All six European teams had a chance pre-event of making the cut, while Natus Vincere's win means they are locked into a Stage 2 start.

But it's Ninjas in Pyjamas who made the most of their chance. According to Finn "Mischief" Farrer's model, the 184 points the team secured in Hungary has given NIP an 86.8% chance of making the Major.

A top three finish was also good news for B8, who are now at 51.2% and in a gaggle of teams including HEROIC, SAW, BetBoom, and fnatic for the final two Major spots from the continent.

In the Americas, Passion UA did enough to increase their chances with the last few invites still up in the air.

Here's how the full top 30 looks in HLTV's live implementation of the ranking — which includes ongoing events and preliminary placements and points earnings from them — as of Sunday, September 21.

There are only 14 days left until the October 6 ranking — the all-important list for Major invites (and BLAST Rivals) — is released, but a plethora of events have been opportunistically scheduled before the cut-off.

The first stage of ESL Pro League has a chance to affect things, but the kingmakers will likely be local LAN tournaments including DraculaN S2, Birch Cup, Riga Open, FERJEE Rush, and Fragadelphia Blocktober. All in all, plenty is left to play for.

Explainer

The table below showcases the teams' standing in each sub-factor of the VRS: Bounty collected (BCOL), Bounty offered (BOFF), Opponent network (NETW), LAN wins (LANW), and the final head-to-head adjustment (H2H). Values in bold represent the top five earners in each factor.
The VRS formula begins with 400 base points, which are spread among the first four categories in our table so that they add up to the total.

Global VRS on September 21st, 2025

RANK

TEAM

Region(s)

BCOL

BOFF

NETW

LANW

H2H

Points

The MongolZ

516

578

327

578

-24

1976

Vitality

495

578

293

538

1936

FURIA

521

578

301

578

-46

1933

Spirit

499

578

285

538

1928

Falcons

456

574

307

566

-29

1875

MOUZ

486

578

294

527

-15

1870

460

525

290

567

1850

Aurora

479

576

300

533

-44

1846

Natus Vincere

430

552

336

551

-80

1788

10.

Astralis

404

539

265

529

-52

1685

11.

3DMAX

447

439

252

578

-42

1675

12.

FaZe

451

433

270

496

1665

13.

TYLOO

424

529

243

561

-137

1619

14.

Liquid

430

470

254

450

-3

1602

15.

paiN

416

423

266

489

-8

1585

16.

GamerLegion

393

430

215

444

1513

17.

Lynn Vision

377

386

200

448

1461

18.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

353

449

279

578

-203

1457

19.

Virtus.pro

391

396

242

419

1451

20.

349

393

248

457

-37

1410

21.

HEROIC

389

419

202

408

-10

1408

22.

SAW

381

385

244

471

-114

1367

23.

Gentle Mates

314

389

296

578

-218

1360

24.

fnatic

335

349

284

537

-158

1347

25.

Legacy

362

344

224

371

1341

26.

BetBoom

338

441

286

298

-32

1331

27.

NRG

312

322

208

470

1313

28.

ECSTATIC

303

334

239

439

-13

1303

29.

PARIVISION

330

370

289

168

144

1301

30.

M80

330

360

227

291

1267

lets freaking go Furia

2025-09-22 15:30

NaVi abusing VRS

4 replies

Navi is abusing VRS by... playing a tournament?

2025-09-22 16:11

1 reply

+1, dont hate the player hate the game

2025-09-22 17:44

Other teams can only blame themselves for their attendance decisions.

2025-09-22 18:16

so how about Fissure..? think again

2025-09-22 21:27

Liquid just used motherlode

2025-09-22 15:32

2 replies

nice reference

2025-09-22 16:36

Ty bro

2025-09-22 16:37

NaVi farmed VRS points in tier 2~3 camp, what a shame

2025-09-22 15:33

idk, system looks kinda broken, when in fissure only two teams losing points and in starladder none, i think money have way too much weight right now, so that if you get more loses then wins you still positive on rating side

2025-09-22 15:47

3 replies

Lan wins is criteria #1 but criteria #2 is money won, the system is filled with inbreeding in T1 tournaments because literally no one can get their money up playing online (T2 can't become stable T1), and then they get seeded into the best teams in T1 tournaments.

2025-09-23 00:44

You can get to Major from T2 and if you do decently well there, you can secure some T1 invites. The main reason why T2 teams can't become stable T1 is that T1 teams keep poaching their best players. Only orgs like Spirit who already had T1 equivalent resources at their disposal can realistically make the jump through finding and developing new players.

2025-09-23 03:37

club share shouldnt count has prizepool. Im not against club share, from a TO standpoint you have to offer something to bring the big orgs to your tournament, but its weighting a lot in VRS And Lan wins should be revised, or we end up with a circlejerk of national lans to farm VRS, like Saw did in Portugal ( x2 times now) organized by a former team foundational player

2025-09-23 11:41

vrs is even worse than partner teams

Faze should have lot vrs surely? Another playoffs missed

They were already quite low on the VRS and won two matches.

2025-09-22 20:23

mouz top 8 soon

TLDR on who's making Major ?

2025-09-22 15:51

Only Replying with the guaranteed teams (as of now) EU: Vitality, Spirit, G2, Falcons, MOUZ, Aurora, NaVi, Astralis, 3DMAX, FaZe, Liquid, GL. Everyone except GL are >99.99%, and GL is 98.2% [ x.com/MischiefCS2/status/197009046310237.. Uploaded on: Sept 22] Americas: FURIA, PaiN, Legacy, NRG, M80, Imperial, PUA Everyone except Imperial and PUA are >99.99%, and Imperial and PUA are 96.5% and 95.4% respectively. [ x.com/MischiefCS2/status/196873029941767.. Uploaded on: Sept 18] [If he uploads a new simulation, I will make sure to update it here] Asia: MongolZ, TYLOO, Lynn Vision These are guaranteed. [no simulations for this, but just take my word for it] So 21/32 are locked in [and even more are tbh, but I won't mention them]

2025-09-22 16:13

all the usual suspects are there this time it seems like, even Astralis arigato anime guy.

2025-09-22 16:18

TY for quoting your sources so I can see the original information as well

2025-09-22 23:37

"The first stage of ESL Pro League has a chance to affect things, but the kingmakers will likely be local LAN tournaments including DraculaN S2, Birch Cup, Riga Open, FERJEE Rush, and Fragadelphia Blocktober. All in all, plenty is left to play for." FERJEE Rush this is the only impactful LAN left, others are less important now.

2025-09-22 15:53

Good effort from Gentle Mates, but maybe is not enough for Major :(

2025-09-22 15:55

i believe in the martineta

2025-09-22 20:58

no one lost points in starladder lol nice system

2025-09-22 15:59

7 replies

there is a reason for it.

2025-09-22 16:08

a stupid one

not really, you can research it yourself.

yes really , you can research it yourself.

2025-09-22 18:08

because all favorites won?

2025-09-22 16:20

loser should lose points.

2025-09-22 18:09

Getting +15 and +21 points isn't the game changing amount needed to make a difference in VRS. OG and 9INE made it through the open qualifiers to get to the Starladder event. Maybe look at it as extra benefit gained from doing that.

2025-09-22 18:19

Passion NA getting 100 points after losing to NaVi and B8 and only getting a sinlge win over Gentle Mates, yeah VRS is definitely fine 💀

Passion UA were ranked #43 and beat #25 in VRS, of course they gained a ton of points... They went up to #32... Then they lost to NaVi (#9 VRS) and B8 (#26 VRS) and dropped to #33... In all cases they were underdogs, and pretty heavy underdogs... Don't get me wrong, VRS is still screwed up and needs adjustments imo, but the reasoning behind their point gains still makes some sense to me

2025-09-22 17:40

6 replies

Don't bother, mate. Whiners will be whining. With or without cheese.

2025-09-22 17:59

The fact that gentle mates were #25 itself is already a clear sign that the ranking system is broken to be honest (nothing against the team, but it's not like they did anything worth mentioning to get there), but even then, getting that much points for a single win against this specific opponent, when compared to how difficult it is for tier 2/3 teams to normally gain points, there's no way you can look at that and don't think that something is wrong

2025-09-22 18:57

Okay, so say we abandon VRS. What do you propose instead?

2025-09-22 20:35

No need to abandon it, the concept behind VRS is a good one, just need some adjustments in the way it distributes points, it's a new system after all and one that is not simple to balance, my critique is that its taking Valve too long to start with the adjustments

2025-09-22 21:12

Valve have made adjustments and improvements continuously since the release of VRS according to feedback from teams, tournament organizers and the community. What adjustments in point distribution would you like to see?

2025-09-23 11:43

Iberian soul were grinding for 8 months, that you dont watch tier 3/2 tournaments it doesnt mean that they dont deserve that position, so is not a "clear sign that the ranking system is broken", is a clear sign of your ignorance regardles this kind of teams...

2025-09-23 16:38

navi +6 after playing against tier 3 XD

2025-09-22 16:17

It was a solid tier 2 tournament and NaVi were #13 when they were invited.

2025-09-22 18:22

love these percent twitter posts so freaking much man

2025-09-22 17:52

Navi keep playing with lower tiers so you wont be droped from top10 again haha

2025-09-22 18:03

Can't laugh enough at the people that bitch about VRS. There will never be a perfect system to pick the teams that are on the bubble for invites and the teams around that range are the teams that you never know what they will give you any given day.

EZ vrs for Liquid.

2025-09-22 18:11

nip, b8 and navi winning more points on a t2 event than 6 teams that made it to a play off of a t1 event. It really feels like ass that valve sacrificed the open rmrs for the major for a system that relies on farming fragadelphias lmfao.

2025-09-22 19:01

Or it gives t2 events more relevance cause t1 teams decide to join.

2025-09-22 19:13

i agree that's a "pro" of the vrs system, but it's still wrong as hell that a tier-1 top 10 team like navi can win 180 points farming tier 2 teams which they are supposed to win against easily....it's a super exploitable system that as much as helps t2 events it also destroys even further the tier-2 scene since small orgs that might try to get some prestige, points & money there just end up with empty hands, not only they got it way harder to reach tier-1 events but now they can't even scrape some leftovers on tier-2. My main concern is not only the exploitability of the system but how much damage it can cause in the long term for the mid & small orgs.

2025-09-23 03:26

That’s just not a good argument. If NaVi’s drop in performance makes top 10 their new goal (or tier 1.5 if you will), then of course they will have to attend more tier 2 tournaments. If other tier 2 teams want to surpass them, all they have to do is improve and beat them. How is this damaging the smaller orgs? Should they be «protected» from playing against NaVi because they are worse than them? What is this reasoning?

2025-09-23 11:48

i'm talking points as much as money....after valve got rid of open qualy's for majors & made it harder for tier 2 and below teams to reach tier 1 events, many orgs closed their doors since there's not much left to work with if you trying to become a good team, majority of orgs are not infinite oil money falcons and they do need open qualys and the few thousands they can scrape on tier 2 events to keep operations running. That's why i'm saying long term this can do even further damage to orgs outisde the tier-1 and on a worst case scenario the tier-2 will just become an org-less land of mix & pugs without actual focus on pro level and just hope for a player here or there to be picked by the tier-1....the gatekeeping could become monstrous.

2025-09-23 15:21

I’m happy about the orgs that shut down because of the removal of RMRs, and so should you be. Their strategy was abominable and not sustainable at all. This was their strategy: pick up a mix of five random free agents qualify for RMR fluke your way into the major with the help of swiss BO1s sticker money If you fail at reaching the major, the team immediately gets dropped, and org operations cease until the next major. Rinse and repeat. I much rather prefer that the major spots go to orgs that are serious about long term success, instead of cash grab shit orgs whose only reason for existing is getting that sticker money share two times a year.

2025-09-23 17:58