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The CS2 Major is the most prestigious event in Counter-Strike. Held twice per year and sanctioned directly by Valve, it brings together 24 of the world's best teams to compete for $1.25 million and the title of Major Champion. Here's everything you need to know about how it works.
A CS2 Major is a Valve-funded, Valve-sanctioned Counter-Strike championship. Unlike third-party events like IEM Katowice or ESL Pro League, Majors operate under Valve's own ruleset and are the official pinnacle of the competitive CS2 calendar.
Two Majors are held each year — typically one in the spring and one in the autumn. Each Major features a live audience, a $1.25 million prize pool, and the Valve Gold Trophy. Winning a Major is widely considered the greatest individual achievement a CS2 player can reach, surpassing any other tournament title in prestige.
Valve also releases official in-game collectibles — team stickers, autograph capsules, and player items — that generate significant community-funding revenue during Major periods, reinforcing the event's unique status in the esports ecosystem.
The CS2 Major uses a three-stage structure that progressively eliminates teams over roughly two weeks of competition.
The opening stage of the Major, run as a best-of-one Swiss system. Teams are seeded by RMR performance and matched against opponents with the same win-loss record. The top 8 teams (3 wins) advance to the Legends Stage. The bottom 8 (3 losses) are eliminated without prize money.
The second stage follows the same Swiss format, this time best-of-three. The eight Legends from the previous Major skip the Challengers Stage and enter here directly, giving them a structural advantage. Eight teams advance to Champions (3-0 or 3-1-1); eight are eliminated.
The decisive single-elimination bracket, all played best-of-three except the Grand Final which is best-of-five. Quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final are played in front of a live audience. The bracket is seeded by Legends Stage performance.
Teams earn spots at the Major through Regional Major Rankings (RMR) events, which Valve holds in three regions: Europe, Americas, and Asia. Each region runs its own RMR tournament in the months leading up to the Major.
Points are awarded based on placement at RMR events, and points decay over time to reward recent performance. The top-ranked teams in each region at the conclusion of the RMR cycle earn direct spots, with remaining spots going to the winners of open qualifier tournaments held the week before the Major.
The returning Legends system means teams that performed well at the previous Major enter the following Major's Legends Stage directly, bypassing the Challengers Stage entirely. This rewards consistency and gives established teams a structural advantage.
Live CS2 RMR rankings are tracked on esport.is/cs2/rankings, updated directly from Valve's official data feed after every event.
The standard CS2 Major prize pool is $1.25 million USD, distributed across all 24 participating teams. A representative breakdown of the distribution:
* Prize pool structure varies slightly by event. Final amounts are set by Valve and the tournament organizer.
The first CS:GO Major was held in 2013 at DreamHack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden. Since then, the event has grown from a $250,000 prize pool to $1.25 million, with attendance figures routinely exceeding 15,000 fans at live venues.
Historically dominant Major champions include Astralis (4 Major titles), NaVi (2 titles including the first CS2 Major in Paris 2023), and FaZe Clan. The most watched Major final in history was the 2022 Antwerp Major Grand Final between NaVi and Outsiders, which drew over 1.8 million peak viewers.
With the transition to CS2 in 2023, Valve introduced several format refinements including the Swiss seeding update and added a ninth round tie-breaker mechanism in the Legends Stage to prevent map-winner collusion in the final round.
Explore CS2 on esport.is
A CS2 Major features 24 teams. Eight are returning Legends who qualified from the previous Major's Legends Stage, eight are Challengers who qualified through RMR events, and eight are Contenders who won regional RMR qualifying tournaments.
CS2 Majors use a Swiss system in the Challengers and Legends stages, where teams are matched by their current win-loss record. Three wins advance a team; three losses eliminate them. The top eight from the Legends Stage proceed to the Champions Stage single-elimination bracket.
The standard CS2 Major prize pool is $1.25 million USD, distributed across all 24 competing teams. The champion receives the lion's share — traditionally $500,000 — along with the gold trophy and the coveted Champion's capsule.
Teams earn points at Regional Major Rankings (RMR) events held across Europe, Americas, and Asia. The top-ranked teams at each regional RMR earn direct or invited placement at the next Major. The number of spots per region varies based on regional performance history.