Counter-Strike’s amateur scene is thriving! More teams than ever before are seeing the difference between officials and matchmaking by starting to compete as a team and climb through League’s divisions to earn their first VRS Points! Read on for the latest improvements for Season 53 where registration closes on April 2nd.
Learn more in this post about our updates including
These last seasons have been all-time highs, with almost 3,000 amateur teams competing worldwide! The EU Open sub-divisions have more teams today than every division combined globally when ESEA Invite became ESL Pro League in 2015. With teams like The Mongolz rising from Open grinders to world champion contenders, we can’t wait to see where the next superstar team will come from!
Everyone in esports knows ESEA League, as donk and the world’s top players went from aspiring amateurs to the stadium’s favorite. However, we want to go further so more players can taste high-pressure official matches. There’s no experience like it, where amateurs mimic their favorite professional team’s strategies but in divisions for their skill level so either team can realistically win. Everyone should get to try Counter-Strike the way it is meant to be played.
Lower-skilled players welcomed our Open1-8, Open9, and Open10 divisions over the last few seasons where we created different starting divisions depending on your FACEIT Matchmaking level. By automatically moving teams to a more appropriate point, we can give stronger teams similarly challenging opponents and more opportunities to be promoted to higher divisions. At the same time, lower-skilled teams can start to gain competitive experience against teams at their level rather than being immediately stomped by someone with their sight set on ESL Pro League.
However, there was one common point of feedback around the discrepancy between very good (but new) teams and those just starting. Players highlighted how despite both being in Open10, there was a clear gap between the experienced players returning and those taking a first step. In Season 52, known veterans like STYKO were competing in Open10 as they restarted with a fresh team working to the top. We think there can be a fairer first step for a group of 2,000 Elo friends who want to try competitive CS for the first time.
In Season 53, we are adding a new “Entry” division in Europe between Open and Intermediate.
It will be made up of:
Entry can reduce the number of blowout officials in Open10 by creating a faster path for experienced players rather than them running over new teams just starting out. More Open teams who have gained competitive experience against real teams can move up and play similar opponents instead of crushing the next generation of newcomers. Those with 2,500+ Elo who have spent thousands of hours refining their skills in Matchmaking can put their talent to the test and see how much it transfers over to official team competition.
Entry is rolling out first in Europe which has seen the biggest growth in recent seasons and if successful could be expanded to North America if successful.
If a high-skilled team is reforming or a team missed their chance to be promoted due to illness or an issue outside of their control, it doesn’t benefit anyone by having them repeat the same divisions or start from scratch.
For Season 53, we are running qualifiers for better teams to skip divisions. This way, they won’t waste time topping a clearly weaker division and instead can get back to competing against an equivalent skill level.
Join free qualifiers before the season starts for:
Competing in official matches has always been a mark of a higher-skilled player. It goes beyond just how much you can grind against less coordinated players, who have been grouped up only for a single game. Top teams look out for who is performing and climbing through the lower divisions.
However, even in matchmaking, players look for who in their PUG is on a League team. If they’re in a higher division, get ready for a tough match against someone who knows the intricacies of Counter-Strike. If they’re not playing on any League team, maybe prepare for some rushes or less-nuanced tactics.
Show off your League status and spot other experienced team players in FACEIT Matchmaking with a new badge added to players’ Matchmaking lobbies that shows your League division when you hover over it!
You can now more easily find similar League players in the FACEIT Discord with our new integration. Connect your Discord account here, head to the #cs2-roles channel, and sync by entering your FACEIT name to automatically get your FACEIT level, team name, and division roles. Level 10 players now get their own private room to trade tips, group up for teams, and just chat!
Every season, thousands of amateur teams register for League and try to assemble rosters right before registration closes. One heartbreaking fact is every season, a few teams will forget, miss the deadline, and reach out after the season started to ask if they can still compete.
With the schedules generated and other teams already preparing for their first officials, there’s not much we can do at that time. We’re adding more visibility to the homepage so you can more easily see your team’s status and hopefully not miss signing up!
These last couple of seasons, the initial matchups have been released late after working through uncommon issues when closing registration. This is frustrating for teams wanting to scout out their opponents and prepare for their first official. Although not clearly visible, we have new tools for our admin team for an easier process this Season. This means we can be better at releasing each season on the initially announced schedule.
We can’t wait to hear your feedback about Entry, the new qualification methods, and what you want for future updates! We’re looking forward to seeing who will rise to the top in Season 53 ! Good luck as you compete in officials built around your schedule, against strategies appropriate for your level, and see how far you can go!
The reason my first version looked different is that the chat rendered the markdown into a visual table, so you couldn't grab the raw source. Here it is in a code block so you can copy the literal markdown. I've kept it at three columns since the data is a before/after comparison — your example was just showing the pipe syntax, but say the word if you actually want it collapsed to two.
