What is VRS in CS2?

VRS stands for Valve Regional Standings — the official ranking system Valve uses to decide which teams qualify for Counter-Strike Majors and other Valve-sponsored events. It replaced the old "Regional Major Ranking" system in 2024 and is now the load-bearing piece of how invitations work.

Unlike fan-made rankings (HLTV, ESL's own ranking, the various analytics sites), VRS is the only ranking that actually decides where the money goes. If your team is high on VRS, you go to Majors; if you're not, you don't.

VRS scores teams based on match results from approved events. The model weighs wins against tougher opponents more than wins against weaker ones, and it weighs LAN matches more than online matches. Results decay over time — a tournament win 8 months ago counts for much less than one from last week.

Valve publishes the full algorithm — and the live data — in an open-source GitHub repository at github.com/ValveSoftware/counter-strike_regional_standings. The ranking updates on the first day of every month.

Monthly updates create stable cut-off points for tournament invitations. Tournaments can publish their invite list using "the VRS ranking at the end of month X," and teams have a clear deadline to climb above the cutoff.

You can see the live VRS standings on our VRS rankings page.