Valve Will Not Issue Licenses for Hosting CS:GO Tournaments

The company Valve has confirmed that it will no longer issue licenses to tournament operators for hosting competitions in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This means organizers will not be able to obtain official permission to run tournaments for this version of the game.

At the same time, the developer continues to grant licenses for several other classic titles in the series. Tournament operators can still receive approval to host events in Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source.

Valve has not commented on the reasons behind this decision. However, many in the community believe the company wants to avoid splitting the player base between different versions of the game and instead keep the competitive scene focused on Counter-Strike 2. Another possible explanation is that CS:GO is no longer officially supported following the release of the newer title.

Interestingly, during the night of March 3–4, a separate page for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive appeared in the Steam store. On its first day, the game reached a peak player count of over 60,000 users, showing that interest in the classic version of Counter-Strike remains strong.

How to Download and Play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after its Return to Steam Library

For now, it remains unclear whether Valve will reconsider its stance on licensing CS:GO tournaments in the future, but at the moment the company’s official esports ecosystem is fully centered around Counter-Strike 2.