Valve has reportedly informed tournament organisers that the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major scheduled for spring 2021 has been cancelled. According to an email obtained by HLTV, Valve confirms that the major, which was slated for May, will not go ahead.
Valve’s correspondence with tournament organisers says that it is now putting its efforts into planning a major for October 2021. This will reportedly be at a “European venue” and a partner for the tournament has already been found. “Assuming it makes sense to proceed,” Valve allegedly says in the email, “the event will take place October 25-November 7 with a potential play-in event October 23-24.”
2020 has been major-less as the highly anticipated major in Rio de Janeiro was first pushed back from spring to fall, and then cancelled altogether due to the implications of the coronavirus pandemic. This most recent cancellation means it will have been over two years since the last CS:GO major, which was the StarLadder Berlin 2019 tournament that was won by Astralis.
While countless events have continued online, and cross-region competitions have recently restarted with the BLAST Premier Fall Series, Valve seems hesitant to rush into a full-blown major this early.
While majors are a long way off for now, we can potentially expect some Regional Major Ranking qualifier events to soon transition from online to LAN, after Valve stated in September that it would only start planning for majors until RMR events were “safe to hold around the world.”
