Valve Regional Standings (VRS) Explained
Quick facts
- Who publishes it: Valve
- What it decides: Major invites, Major seeding, invites to many other events
- Regions: Europe, Americas, Asia, plus a global list
- Official update: first Monday of each month
- What counts: recent results at Valve-approved events
Why VRS exists
Before VRS, Majors used separate qualifier tournaments, and each organizer invited teams in its own way. Valve introduced VRS to make invites open and predictable: any team that wins enough at approved events can climb into a Major spot. Since the StarLadder Budapest Major in late 2025, all 32 Major teams are invited by VRS alone.
What VRS measures
VRS looks only at matches from events that follow Valve's rules for tournament organizers. For each team it combines several factors:
- Prize money won. Bigger results at bigger events count more.
- Strength of the teams beaten. Beating a team that has itself won a lot is worth more.
- How many different teams were beaten. A team that beats many opponents ranks higher than one that keeps beating the same few.
- LAN wins. Wins at offline (LAN) events count more than online wins.
- Head-to-head results. The final number is adjusted by direct results between teams.
Recent results count much more than old ones, so a team that stops winning drops quickly.
Regions
Every team belongs to one region, based on where most of its players live: Europe, Americas or Asia. Each region gets its own number of Major places, set by how its teams did at the previous Major. That is why a team from a smaller region can get a Major invite while a higher-ranked European team misses out.
How VRS sets up a Major
- On the invite date, the organizer uses the latest published VRS.
- The top teams in each region get invites until the region's places are filled.
- The global ranking of the invited teams then decides the stage each team starts in. The top 8 skip straight to Stage 3.
See What Is a CS2 Major? for the full format.
VRS vs other rankings
| Ranking | Made by | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| VRS | Valve | Major invites and seeding, many tournament invites |
| HLTV ranking | HLTV, independently | media and fan discussion |
| R1GG rating | R1GG, from results only | context on our match pages |
The lists often disagree. VRS rewards prize money and event size; other rankings focus more on who beat whom. The R1GG rating is our own Elo-style rating and is not an official ranking. How it works.
Where to see the current VRS
Valve publishes the standings publicly, and community sites mirror them. On R1GG, each team page shows our own rating; when you need the official Major picture, check Valve's latest monthly release.
FAQ
What is VRS in CS2?
VRS (Valve Regional Standings) is Valve's official ranking of CS2 teams. It decides which teams are invited to Majors and where they are seeded.
How often is VRS updated?
Valve publishes an official update on the first Monday of each month. Organizers must use the latest published version when they send invites.
What does VRS take into account?
Recent results at Valve-approved events: how much prize money a team won, how strong the teams it beat were, how many different teams it beat, and wins at LAN events. Recent results count more than old ones.
Is VRS the same as the HLTV ranking?
No. HLTV publishes its own independent ranking. VRS is the only one Valve uses for Majors, so the two lists often differ.
Related guides
What Is a CS2 Major?A CS2 Major is the biggest event in Counter-Strike: 32 teams, $1.25M, sponsored by Valve. How Majors work, how teams qualify and every CS2 Major winner.
BO1 vs BO3 vs BO5: Match Formats in CS2BO1 is one map, BO3 is first to two maps, BO5 is first to three. What each CS2 format means, where tournaments use them and why upsets happen more in BO1.
CS2 Rules Explained: A Beginner's Guide to Competitive Counter-StrikeHow competitive CS2 works: two teams of five, T vs CT, 13 rounds to win a map, the bomb, the economy and how pro matches are played as BO1 or BO3.
Sources
Reviewed by the R1GG team