CS:GO is one of the biggest games in the world, attracting huge crowds of people every year. Players from all around the globe are eager to fill their inventories with the best skins and boost their spot in the rankings. In addition, Counter-Strike has also conquered the world of eSports. Various tournaments are organized around the world, bringing together masses of enthusiasts every year. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championships, aka Majors, is among them. So, if you want to find out where and when the next event will be held, check out our article. We will explain everything in great detail. 

What Are Major Championships?

The Major Championships is the largest Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournament that is officially sponsored by Valve Corporation (aka the developer of CSGO, if anyone is confused). The first official edition was held in 2013, however, the history of the Majors goes all the way back to 2001, when the 2001 Cyberathlete Professional League Winter Championship was held. That event is considered to be an unofficial predecessor of the Majors by many CSGO enthusiasts, however, as it had nothing to do with Valve Corporation, opinions are divided on the subject. 

How Do Majors Work?

In 2016, there was a drastic change in the way Majors work, which led to many players feeling lost in how the new championship format operates. 

Allow us to explain what this is all about. 

The New Challengers Stage

The Majors is divided into three stages, with the first elimination stage called “The New Challengers Stage” (previously known as “The Major Offline Qualifier“). During this stage, 16 teams face each other in an attempt to advance to the next round. Half of them are the winners of one of the four regional Minors, who managed to beat their opponents and qualify for the Majors. On top of that, there are another 2 teams – the third-place winners in the Minors, who received the highest scores just behind the first and second places (I hope you’re still keeping up). The last 6 teams are the so-called Previous Major’s Fallen, i.e. teams that lost the last championship and thus guaranteed their place in the next tournament. 

In summary, it breaks down as follows:

• 8 Teams – 1st and 2nd place winners from 4 regional Minors
• 2 Teams – 3rd place winners of the Minors with the highest scores
• 6 Teams – Previous Major’s Fallen aka bottom teams from the last Major’s second stage

The New Challengers Stage uses “the Swiss format“, which basically means that losing a single match does not disqualify you. Instead, the teams’ goal is to win 3 matches out of 5. When this happens, the team in question stops playing and moves on to the next round. Any team that loses 3 matches is automatically disqualified from the Major. 

The New Legends Stage

The next stage of the competition is “The New Legends Stage” (previously known as “The Group Stage“). Here, the eight teams that won the qualifiers, known as “The New Challengers“, and the eight teams that got the best results in previous Majors and thus secured a place in the second phase of the next year’s tournament, known as “The Current Legends“, will face each other.

• 8 Teams – The New Challengers
• 8 Teams – The Current Legends

The format for this stage is the same as in “The New Challengers Stage“, that is, the goal is to win 3 matches as quickly as possible. 8 best teams advance to the final round, while the 6 bottom teams become the Previous Major’s Fallen. 

The New Champions Stage

In the final phase (previously known as the Playoffs), the top eight teams that came from “The New Legends Stage” face each other. Here, since the competition is so cutthroat, the best-of-3 rule applies, instead of the best-of-1 as in the previous phases of the competition. In the end, only one team wins the Major Championship. 

When Was The First Major Held?

Sweden’s Jönköping hosted the first official CS:GO Major Championship, aka DreamHack Winter 2013. It was the first tournament officially sponsored by Valve Corporation. The event got its name from the fact that it was hosted by DreamHack, a company specializing in organizing eSports competitions. The winner was the Swedish team Fnatic, which thus won a prize pool of $250000. The money was partly community-founded, mainly through The Arms Deal update introduced to the game at the time.

When Was The Last Major Held?

The last edition of the Majors, IEM Rio Major 2022, was the eighteenth installment of the competition. It was held in late October and early November of 2022 in Rio de Janeiro. The winner of the tournament was the international team called Outsiders and the prize awarded in this competition was the largest offered to date, amounting to $2 million.

CSGO Major Championship 2023

The next CS:GO Majors tournament, aka BLAST.tv Paris CS:GO Major 2023, will be held in Paris. The announcement came from French President Emmanuel Macron himself. The championship is scheduled to come back to Europe in May 2023 and it will be the first time that Majors will be held in this country.

What Can We Expect From the Next Major Tournament?

The upcoming CS:GO Major Championship will be held from May 8-21, while the qualifiers are scheduled for February and March 2023. The exact dates have not yet been announced. 

As for the venue, it will be the Accor Arena, also known as Bercy. Its capacity ranges from 7,000 to 23,000 people, depending on the type of event being held. Needless to say, CS:GO players can rest assured that most of them will manage to fit inside. 

Unfortunately, the prize pool for 2023 has not yet been announced, but considering last year’s amount of $2000000, we can assume that it will be either the same or more. 

When it comes to the format of the next Major Championship, we’re also not yet sure exactly what the qualification process will look like. One thing we do know is that Valve has announced that the system will undergo slight changes.

Conclusions

CS:GO Majors is the world’s largest Counter Strike competition sponsored by Valve Corporation. Players from all over the world gather every year to root for their beloved teams and watch the fierce matches. If you want to take part in this event (whether as a spectator or as a player), then be sure to read our article. Who knows, maybe the title of BLAST.tv Paris CS:GO Major 2023 Champion will belong to you!