Rule Change at Perfect World Shanghai Major Sparks Controversy

The placement of teams in the Elimination stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major will no longer depend on results from the European RMR. According to the initial rulebook, team placements were supposed to be determined by an update to the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) before the event, as seen during the first CS2 Major in Copenhagen.

Instead, Perfect World decided that the top four teams from each RMR group would advance to the Elimination stage, introducing additional matches to determine fourth place. One such match has already taken place between FaZe and Cloud9 in RMR A.

While this change is unlikely to affect the outcome of RMR A, where the expected favorites have already secured their spots, it raises concerns about the integrity of the competition. The rule adjustment particularly impacts underdog teams in RMR B, who have been outperforming expectations. Two outsiders, BIG and 3DMAX, secured their spots in the Elimination stage before the rules were changed.

Perfect World stated that their original regulations were approved by Valve. However, the game's developer requested a mid-tournament reversal of these rules during the final qualifying stage for the Major.

Impacted teams received the following notification

"It was previously communicated that the Europe A and B RMRs would play a tiebreaker to decide the 4th and 5th place advancement spots, which determined Opening and Elimination stage placements at the Major.

This tiebreaker and its corresponding format for team advancement from the RMRs have been used in past Majors and were discussed and confirmed with Valve ahead of time. However, today Valve requested us to cancel this tiebreaker going forward, facilitating a full transition to the VRS system for 2024 and onwards.

Additionally, for sorting teams qualifying from the Europe RMRs into the Major itself: an update to the Valve Regional Standings will come after the conclusion of the RMRs, and all qualifying teams, including those who had already completed the Europe A RMR, will be sorted before the Shanghai Major solely based on the VRS instead."

This decision has sparked intense debate among teams and fans. Changing the rules mid-tournament jeopardizes the fairness of the competition, particularly for teams that exceeded expectations and earned their spots against the odds.