How does the StarLadder Berlin Major roster rule affect CSGO teams?

CSGO’s StarLadder Berlin Major is approaching and there are a lot of questions and concerns about the roster rules. With the recent announcement of Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David asking to be on the bench, those questions become even more important, as the Brazilian team does not have many options for themselves.

On June 25, the StarLadder Berlin Major finalizes the list of teams competing for the Major. Due to the start of August 23, teams have not been able to change their official lineups for almost two months. For teams that do not prepare well or do not read the rules of the StarLadder Berlin Major, this becomes a difficult challenge.

The number of players, coaches and managers who do not understand this rule is alarming. Hopefully this article will help readers somewhat better understand the rules of this Major.

Each Major has 24 CSGO teams, 14 of which have earned the right to participate thanks to their rankings from the previous Major. We have 10 spots left to be determined through smaller tournaments called the Minor Championship.

The top two ranked teams of each Minor (for a total of four Minors) will win slots, while the last two will come from the third-place draw. To enter the Minor, the teams must qualify through the Minor closed qualifying round. one of four open Minor qualifiers. At the time of writing, we are less than a week away before the Minor tournaments begin.

Member change (Part 2, Section 12 of StarLadder Berlin rules)

Due to the four Minor qualifiers, teams were allowed to change lineups between the four attempts if they wanted to. In addition, coaches or substitutes can change without any problem between matches in open and closed qualifiers with no penalty. Once teams reach the closed qualifiers, they are not allowed to add unregistered players or players who have previously failed in the open qualifiers. This is why Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker couldn’t play for Lazarus in the North American closed qualifiers – he competed in the open qualifiers with the Bad New Bears and failed.

The point to pay attention here is from the qualifying round to the Minor. Once in the Minor, players cannot switch back and forth with any team in the Minor or Major.

If the team does not qualify for the Minor, their players are allowed to join the Major teams as long as they join before the closing date. Here’s what MiBR did to Lucas ‘LUCAS1’ Teles because LUCAS1’s Luminosity Gaming failed before.

In addition to the problem mentioned above, the formation of the squad is very simple. After June 25, no changes were allowed except in an emergency situation and StarLadder added evidence for an emergency. Examples they give include visa problems or health problems.

The above rule is extremely important because coldzera wants to be on the bench after a series of poor results from Made in Brazil. He said he would stay until the Major, but his teammates wanted him to leave sooner.

Unfortunately for them, MiBR can’t compete with anyone except coldzera, except in emergency situations. Several newspapers have contacted StarLadder to ask if the team is allowed to play with four members, but have yet to respond.

Another team that has been hit hard is Ninjas in Pajamas. The organization chose Nicolas ‘Plopski’ Gonzalez Zamora to replace Dennis ‘dennis’ Edman in the starting lineup.

Due to Plopski qualifying for the European Minor with Team Ancient, he was unable to join another Minor or Major team. Due to advancing deeper than LUCAS1, Plopski was unable to play for NiP. As a result, they were forced to borrow Maikil ‘Golden’ Kunda Selm from Cloud9, and they had to do it before the final roster date of June 25. NiP is now a Legend in Berlin due to their previous IEM Katowice Major playoffs.

Despite going through so many Majors, the roster rules still seem to be a barrier for many teams.