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Game developer Valve recently announced new changes to rules governing tournament organizers that seem to have sent shock waves across the ecosystem. The new rules set to take effect from 2025, stipulate that tournament organizers cannot have business relationships with teams in their tournaments as this amounts to conflict of interest.
With these rules coming into effect, they put to an end the semi-franchised partnerships that have dominated CS:GO tournaments. Valve wants to ensure that a team’s ability is what pushes them to the top of competitive events and not money. Sharing the new development in a 200-word blog post, Valve noted with concern how Counter Strike’s professional tournaments have been drifting away from the initial ideals of the tournament and now access to the highest levels of competitions for teams was being curtailed by business relationships. The competitions according to Valve are supposed to be an open playing field where a team’s ability will be the only hindering factor in their progress to the top.
The rules further stipulate that any competition that the organizers pay participating teams, the prize money and other revenue streams should be made public and be open for scrutiny by the community.
More Teams to Access Opportunities
With these new rules, more teams are going to get realistic opportunities to play at the highest level. This means a wide pool of teams will have more exposure that they can sell to brands and access to other league revenue-sharing streams. This will have a ripple effect in the whole tournament ecosystem including esports betting where the introduction of new teams will throw a spanner in the works and make things more interesting.
Top esports bookmakers like GGBet are also following the developments closely as they seek to adjust and ensure their players reap maximum benefits from any changes to the tournaments. For all your CS:GO betting now and even after the changes come into effect play at GGbet by visiting https://ggbet.zone/en to enjoy the most competitive odds and the most diverse markets.
Small and medium-sized organizations with interests in esports have also welcomed the news. They now smell an opportunity to be part of the Counter Strike tournament ecosystem through sponsorships that are now the preserve of the big boys with well-oiled pockets.
More Teams for the Same Size of Pie
But regardless of the new expected changes, even with the current semi-franchised model, most top teams are still struggling to make profits. Being one of the most stable titles with a huge fan base, CS:GO attracts top teams thanks to its pedigree and attractive revenue-sharing models. But even with these, most teams are finding it hard to achieve profitability and the proposed changes can spell bad news to an already tricky situation. This will turn into a situation where the amount of shareable revenue will be spread thinner as more teams get a share of the pie without the pie having increased in size. ESL and BLAST, the two semi-franchised tournament organizers seem to have their work cut out for them to comply with the new changes.
Valve is well aware that there will be challenges as expected of any transitions. But even with the rough edges expected, their resolve is still strong to ensure the changes come into effect for the benefit of the larger CS:GO tournaments ecosystem. As we have come to expect of them we know they won’t just sit and do nothing in case of challenges. Valve is King and a King ensures the survival of all its subjects especially in situations that threaten their survival.
