professional cs works on a system called VRS - the valve ranking system - which, oversimplified, works on the principle that for every match big enough to be tracked by HLTV (the biggest cs news site), the winner gains VRS points and the loser loses VRS point, with upsets increasing the point amount

April 03, 2026 - 22:16 UTC

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these points are then used to rank every team on a global ranking as well as broken down into region (europe, americas, asia) and subregion (north america, south america, oceania, etc), and most high tier tournaments primarily invite based on these rankings
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the cs year is broken down into two half-year seasons, each of which are capped off with a "major", a valve-sponsored megatournament with its own structure, in-game cosmetics, etc. majors are the biggest, most prestigious, and arguably most difficult tournaments to win
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correction - VRS stands for valve regional standings
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