Valve has released a statement regarding exclusivity in professional Counter-Strike, presumably in response to recent controversy surrounding certain leagues in CS:GO. The statement also addresses media rights, something that disrupted the recent StarLadder Major’s community streams.
Counter-Strike has had multiple professional leagues over its lifetime, most notably ESL Pro League and ECS. Prominent CS:GO tournament organizers ESL and BLAST recently revealed their plans to build broad tournament circuits in 2020. While Valve states that they are in favor of organizers experimenting with their events, they are not interested in any exclusivity rules within tournaments. Without naming any specific organizers, the CS:GO team states that they are “not interested in providing licenses for events that restrict participating teams from attending other events.” Tournament exclusivity has been a hot topic within the CS:GO scene, as BLAST have come under fire for their “soft exclusivity” rules in their event circuit.
In 2019, teams competing in BLAST’s circuit were required to attend six events throughout the year, potentially preventing them from attending other tournaments. This conversation gained momentum after Team Liquid nearly skipped out on attending ESL One Cologne, one of the biggest events of the year, in favor of the much smaller BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles.
Valve’s statement also mentions conflicts of interest within Counter-Strike events. This has been addressed in the past, though Valve says they felt it was “worth reiterating.” They make it clear that “any tournament organizer, team, or player cannot have a financial interest in the success of any other team or its players.” This again concerns BLAST Pro Series, an event circuit owned by RFRSH Entertainment. Up until recently, RFRSH also owned Astralis, one of the best Counter-Strike teams in the world. While this fact has been met with disapproval from the community, RFRSH have not faced any repercussions for it. Valve only mentions this rule explicitly in regards to CS:GO Majors, and BLAST have not put on any Majors.
The final topic addressed by Valve’s statement concerns the media rights to stream CS:GO Majors. In the past, community streamers and personalities have been able to stream the live GOTV feed of Major matches. The GOTV IP has been publicly listed for anyone to watch and broadcast. During the recent StarLadder Major, many popular community streamers were issued DMCA copyright notices and had their Twitch channels banned from the platform. Valve now states that, while Major tournament organizers are the only party with a broadcast license, they should be “as inclusive as possible,” and “work with streamers to provide viewers with access to valuable content […] whether through official streams or otherwise.” This statement doesn’t outright say that anyone is allowed to stream Major games, but rather that community streamers will need to reach out to the Major’s organizer “ahead of time.”
This statement has been met with mixed reviews from the CS:GO community, as many feel that Valve has sided with organizers over content creators. Others are glad that an official statement has been made regarding exclusivity within leagues and tournament circuits.
