Anyone paying attention to the race for invites to the StarLadder Budapest Major will tell you it has been quite a ride. While the majority of the CS2 Major invites have been decided for a while now, it’s those precious last few spots that have caused such furore in these final days.

Valve’s removal of MRQs in favor of direct CS2 Major invites has resulted in what is ultimately a VRS points arms race. Who can scrap together the most points in as short a time as possible? Who can afford to travel to these smaller events, wherever they’re hosted, in the quest for those precious LAN wins? These are questions the new system has put forward in the StarLadder Budapest Major qualification cycle, raising concerns about the new system. But one element has been caught in the crossfire, affected more than most: local LANs.

Local LANs can punch above their weight now, but is that a good thing?

In the Valve Regional Standings, LAN wins are weighted heavily over online wins. Win on LAN, earn far more VRS points than online. This does cap out at a certain point, which puts a ceiling on this bonus, but there’s still one significant problem. The status of that LAN (or the teams attending) and the format of the match (best-of-one, best-of-three, etc.) is not taken into account. At all. It’s as simple as: win on LAN, get the LAN bonus. Want to set up an offline event with eight teams, all playing best-of-ones against one another, allowing a team to theoretically rack up seven LAN wins in a matter of days? You can technically do that under the current system.

Now, no one has exploited that specific loophole as of yet, but local LANs are seeing a huge boost under the current system. Events with open signups and low prize pools held near the CS2 Major invites cut-off are seeing teams on the verge enlist, in the hopes of collecting offline wins to push them into range. Take Fragadelphia Blocktober as perhaps the best example. Do we think eventual winners Fnatic were particularly enthralled by the event’s $5,500 prize pool? Or did they care a little bit more about the four LAN wins they racked up in the process? This is a team, by the way, that just last week were in Poland for the Birch Cup, in which they won a whopping $275 (and two LAN wins). The answer is clear.

Fragadelphia Blocktober 2025 Fnatic Win
Image via Fragadelphia

For smaller tournament organizers, this is kind of the dream scenario – I’m not disputing that. Better teams mean better sponsors. And better sponsors mean more money. This is a system that now allows these events to punch above their weight, even with a minuscule prize pool. That’s cool.

But in these situations, there’s always a trade-off, and that is true here, too. In seeing these sign-ups from bigger and better teams, I feel local LANs are losing one of Counter-Strike’s greatest intangibles – spirit.

Again, we’ll stick with Fragadelphia, as they are perhaps the best example of this. Historically, Fragadelphia has been something of a breeding ground for North American talent. Early iterations featured players like fl0m, tarik, and EliGE, who would all go on to write legacies in the game in their own way. Not that Fragadelphia was make-or-break for any of them, but getting that LAN experience early in your career is important, whether you go on to be a prominent streamer or CS Major winner.

It created a culture and a spirit around Fragadelphia. NA CS doesn’t have much, but it had Frag, and that was pretty great. So when you glance at the Semi-Final teams at Fragadelphia Blocktober to see a lineup of Fnatic, 9INE, OG, and ECSTATIC (a set of teams more in line with what you’d expect from a CCT event), you wonder, what’s the incentive for fans?

9INE Fragadelphia Blocktober 2025
Image via Fragadelphia

For the fans attending Fragadelphia, North American Counter-Strike is of particular interest. I doubt the aforementioned quartet inspires the same level of intrigue, even if they represent an upgrade on local teams. Long-term, it could aid in killing local interest in NA CS (worse than it already is). Not good. There were always some global mixes attending Fragadelphia events in the past, but they were few and far between, and they did it for the love of the game. Now, it’s whoever can afford to swallow the cost of the event, even if they win it, because the upside is just so high. As true in Counter-Strike as it is in life, those with cash to burn get the most opportunities to thrive.

We’ll see more of this in the future, too. Spots at small LANs that could sponsor the growth of local talent, taken up by the rich and desperate as their last resort when CS2 Major invites are on the line. Again, great for sponsors and tournament organizers, bad for everyone else.

We’ve seen the best-case scenario – but will they all be this interesting?

Rant above aside, there’s no doubt that the LAN bonanza sparked by the race for VRS points and CS2 Major invites was entertaining. It culminating in what was essentially an EU RMR at Fragadelphia Blockville was, as the kids say, absolute cinema. Winner takes all the marbles (or an invite to the StarLadder Budapest Major). But according to VRS genius Jesper Larsen, this is not a scenario we should expect to repeat itself any time soon.

He describes the situation as it unfolded as “a complete freak occurrence” and “a one in a million chance” that events transpired as they did. Rather, in the future, it’s far more likely that CS2 Major invites will be decided well in advance, or in a situation with complexities that are not quite as simple as “You win, you get the Major spot.” In other words, it’s going to be less fun next time around. If it goes down to the wire again, only the real mathematicians among us will be able to figure out the final Major invites.

We’ve already seen the best-case scenario with the current system. When it’s good, it’s good. But is it worth selling the soul of smaller LANs in the process? I’m not sure.