On Tuesday, a hidden link to new guidelines for the 2022 and 2023 Regional Major Ranking cycle was leaked, and speculation began to arise over several key changes.
A new rule which states that "a team's region is determined by the citizenship of the majority of its players" became the main point of contention. This rule was not in place in the previous cycle, as teams could choose in which region they competed, with several Brazilian teams as well as Australian side EXTREMUM opting to play in North America, for example.
HLTV.org knows that this is a result of more extensive changes to the Major-qualifying system. Sources tell us that Valve has decided to run RMR events on LAN in just three big regions in the future, combining the Americas into one region, as well as Europe and CIS, and Asia with Oceania. Should the RMR cycle have to take place online, the regions are expected to be split up into the original six again.
In combination, the regions will hold just as many slots in the next Major cycle as they did for the PGL Major Stockholm. The new Americas RMR cycle will offer 6 spots (previously 5 in NA and 1 in SA) at the next Major, Europe will have 16 (previously 11 in Europe and 5 in CIS), while Asia and Oceania will offer 2 spots (previously 1 in each region).
The distribution of the Legend, Challenger, and Contender spots should follow results from the previous Major event.
Two Major tournaments are expected to be hosted in 2022, in May and November, but the details of either tournament are still yet to be unveiled.
ESL stated back in September that the Rio Major — which had been planned for May 2020 but was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic — was under consideration for 2022. Tuesday's report from Dexerto says there are "tentative plans" for an ESL Major to take place in Rio de Janeiro on October 31-November 13.
Esto creo que lo ha sacado nors3 en twitta
Va a ser una masacre europa xDD
