The company Valve, recognized for its ownership of Counter-Strike, is gradually distancing itself from the practice of skin gambling. They believe that Counter-Strike shines most brightly when competition is based purely on skill, rather than influenced by outside factors.
Regrettably, over recent years, this ideal has faded, as the Counter-Strike professional scene has been deviating from this paradigm. The competitive landscape has become increasingly closed-off, with the upper echelons of competition becoming inaccessible to many, except through complex business affiliations.
In a recent news post to the Counter-Strike community page called “A Level Playing Field”, Valve has outlined that they want to move the competitive scene back to what it was like early on in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive release.
Valve advocates for Counter-Strike as an open sport. In order to achieve this, they plan to introduce new prerequisites for organizing large-scale competitive events. While the specific elements are still being refined, the general principles include the following:
Organizers of tournaments will no longer engage in exclusive business partnerships or possess any conflicts of interest with the participating teams in their events.
The invitation process for all tournaments will be dictated by a ranking system as per Valve’s instructions, or otherwise through open qualifiers.
All forms of team compensation, whether it’s the prize pool or other forms, will be made public. It will also be based on objective criteria available for community scrutiny.
This may put a stop to a lot of the controversial sponsorships between different eSports teams and hopefully prevent many more scam gambling websites from being created. If you want to gamble Counter-Strike skins make sure you use our list of Counter-Strike gambling websites, this way you know you’re using a reputable website that I have personally used myself as the owner of this website.
While recognizing that some tournament organizers have existing long-term commitments, these changes will only become mandatory starting from 2025. Valve acknowledges that the transition may be challenging, but its primary focus remains on the long-term vitality of Counter-Strike as a sport, anticipating a future where it can thrive openly and freely.
