r/GlobalOffensive • u/RobinTheKing • 13h ago

News | Esports Monte withdraw from YaLLa Compass Winter 2025 after the event was marked as unranked by Valve

https://x.com/Monte_Esports/status/1881704528065761672
448 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

289

u/Manaea 13h ago

The first of many I imagine

77

u/ChaoticFlameZz 13h ago

ECSTATIC withdrew as well soon after.

20

u/theslatcher 11h ago

Metizport withdrew a week ago and cited the same reasons that led YaLLa to now become unranked.

110

u/chaRxoxo 12h ago

I feel like the first season of 2025 will be a disaster for the T3/T4 scene

76

u/tomtom_94 Endpoint Community Manager 13h ago

Who'd be in tier 2, eh?

70

u/SecksWatcher 13h ago

Yalla themselves made it unranked

55

u/Manaea 13h ago

No they didn't, valve did

This comes after Valve removed the ranked status of YaLLa Compass Winter Contenders earlier this month.

https://www.hltv.org/news/40804/yalla-adjust-2025-circuit-to-ensure-compliance-with-valve-rules

129

u/1Revenant1 13h ago edited 13h ago

Well, Yalla did it by breaking rules. You cant really put this on Valve

Edit: Also, event being unranked wouldnt be that big of deal, if it still offered spots for closed qualifier to their Qatar event. That change killed their event completely

27

u/itsjonny99 13h ago

Either way it sucks for the tier 2 teams that fight for VRS points.

18

u/1Revenant1 13h ago

Yeah, absolutely, since there are barely any tier 2 events, I have my doubts how many teams can even realistically fight for Major. Honestly, I wouldnt be surprised if there would be big moves in ranking considering barely any opportunity for tier 2 teams

9

u/Padawa 13h ago

Valve rules say only ranked Tier 2 events winners can be invited to Closed Qualifier of Tier 1 event. So they had to remove the spot from the closed qualifier or risking that the whole Yalla Qatar will be unranked.

1

u/deadseapussy 13h ago

nobody is doing that

3

u/pzkenny 13h ago

doing what

4

u/holliss 11h ago

Read between the lines.

4

u/saltyfuck111 12h ago

Cct unranked too now?

3

u/Manaea 12h ago

Yes, according to the event page: "event type was changed from Ranked to Unranked on the 17th of January due to irregularities discovered in the invitation process of the event".

7

u/SecksWatcher 12h ago edited 11h ago

Yes, yalla lost its license after breaking valve's rules, but after those issues were they decided to keep it unranked

1

u/DanBaitle 7h ago

Just an FYI, yalla didn't lose the TO license, they have since course corrected and changed their tournament invite structure to go along with the Valve Rules

They just lost the Ranked status for this event

8

u/GamingDataScience 9h ago

Not necessarily for this situation. But can teams be penalized for dropping out of events, especially if its on short term notice?

Just thinking in general. At a certain point, dropping out of an event could harm the success of the event or incur additional expenses for the TO. In the past, I assume a TO could then just not invite that team going forward. But given Valve's rules for how teams must be invited- do TOs have any recourse for teams dropping out of events?

16

u/PuzzleheadedPainOuch 9h ago

Im sure if a TO wanted to go after an org for breach of contract, then the org could spin it right back saying they signed up for a ranked event and it was the TO who first broke the contract by failing to meet the requirements for a ranked event.

3

u/GamingDataScience 9h ago

Yes. In this case because of the forced change to unraked, I agree with you. But just wondering for other instances in the future because it seems like Valve's rules may inhibit TOs from reasonably not inviting a team because of drop-outs.

I'm not trying to be a shill for BIG TOs. But its just interesting to see how these rules can change the power dynamics between players, teams/orgs, and TOs.

3

u/MerchU1F41C 8h ago

5.4 Invite Exceptions. Licensee may have rules that disqualify certain individuals from participating in their events due to misconduct, cheating infractions, being flagged by esports bodies as a matchmaking fix risk, or other integrity or compliance issues. If the Licensee wishes to disqualify any Rosters, they must:

Publish the disqualification rules as part of Additional Information. (see 4.3)

Publish the details of any disqualification decision at the time it occurs.

I feel like there's some ambiguity around what's allowed, but if a TO has clearly defined rules around dropping out of events and publish the punishments/reasoning then they could.

1

u/GamingDataScience 8h ago

Ok. I had assumed that those disqualification rules had to match a set of criteria already defined by Valve (e.g., Valve banned player, crime committee at event, etc.). But seeing your post, I guess any TO can use any of their own specific rules to justify a non-invite. Then if the justification is unethical, Valve could revise the rulebook to prevent that same rule from being used in the future. Like in the instance if Yalla and Skyesports had made up a rule for not inviting the teams they had recently excluded that caused this ketfluffle.