CSGO tournaments want the MR12 format to return, but is it possible?

Some CSGO tournament organizers have just applied the MR12 format. But does such a change help the tournaments stay on schedule, and will it bring a positive to the game?

If you’ve ever seen professional CSGO and heard the terms MR15 or MR12, you probably won’t know what they mean. This is a simple concept that is rarely explained. MR stands for “max rounds”, which is the maximum number of rounds a team can play on one side of the map. CSGO usually uses MR15, with each team competing for up to 15 rounds per side. If the team wins all 15 rounds on one side but loses 15 rounds in the second round, the game score will be 15-15 and the game goes into overtime (overtime).

This is considered a simple concept. But what makes games like CSGO and Valorant so complicated is the economics of the game. In both games, the team takes money and uses that money to buy guns, armor, and grenades. As for Valorant, money is used to buy skills.

CSGO’s CT economy can’t stand MR12

When the Valorant beta came out, people were surprised to see that the game only had 12 rounds per side instead of 15 rounds. Theoretically, this means the game should go faster and end sooner. But is MR12 suitable for CSGO?

Currently, CSGO games can go on for up to an hour, which requires a lot of time, especially when you don’t have much free time to play the game. To people like that, the MR12 sounds great. It means 6 rounds less, which means shorter games, faster wins (losses too). However, there are a few problems to apply MR12 to professional CSGO.

CSGO changing to MR12 will have to start from scratch

The third server support, ESEA, tried out MR12 in CSGO over the weekend. The main problem is obvious in some games: you can’t ‘come back’ when you lose early rounds.

The CT side is also affected more heavily than the T. We realize CT, their economy is too fragile in the current situation to use the MR12 system. Once in eco, saving (which does nothing) seems like a bad idea. Because the game has less than 3 rounds, each round is now more valuable in winning. Saving in such situations is just too absurd, and the only way people choose is to force buy.

If the team loses the round force buy, CT will be stuck in a force buy cycle while trying to find a way to ‘comeback’.

The second problem also shows up, especially when fans compare CSGO with rival Valorant. Compared to CSGO, the game Valorant is faster, and many fans believe that the MR12 format that Riot Games chose is a factor affecting that. But the reality is a bit more complicated.

Valorant matches are faster because the teams are closer to each other, not because they’re MR12. Sometimes, because of Valorant’s design, games actually feel longer because teams wait until the last seconds of each round to launch a bombsite attack. In CSGO, it’s just one of the game’s tactics. As for Valorant, this is often seen as the popular default play.

If Valve changes the CSGO economy, then MR12 is possible

Although MR12 does not work in the current CSGO tournament system, Valve has many ways to make the game shorter. Creating its own MR12 mode with an adjusted economy that allows the CT side to ‘come back’ despite the weak economy is the first step Valve should try. CSGO already has Demolition, a mode that allows teams to upgrade guns through the number of lives they eat. This mode has less rounds and should operate in a competitive 5vs5 mode for everyone to get used to.

However, if gamers really want MR12. Any changes to traditional CSGO will be met with a backlash from fans. It seems that aside from the tournament organizers (the MR12 system makes the game faster and the tournament ends faster), most of the community probably wants to keep CSGO as it is.

Fans will have to wait and see if Valve plans to change CSGO to the MR12 system. Such a change would inevitably have to tweak the entire game economy, and that’s something Valve is reluctant to get its hands on.