As we enter the 2021 RMR season, we’ve decided to revisit some of our event guidelines.
Up until today, players were ineligible to participate in Valve-sponsored events if they had ever received a VAC-ban in CS:GO. These guidelines had not seen an update since the game was new and all CS:GO VAC bans were relatively recent. But VAC bans can now be more than 8 years old. So we’ve decided to update them.
Moving forward, a VAC ban will only disqualify a player from an event if it was either received less than 5 years prior, or if it was received at any time after their first participation in a Valve-sponsored event (e.g., after participating in a qualifier for an RMR event). Note that VAC bans stay in place with all of their other effects; the only change is how they influence your eligibility to play in Valve-sponsored events.
There are other reasons a player may not be eligible to participate in Valve-sponsored events. These remain unchanged.
We hope you’re as excited as we are for the upcoming 2021 RMR events. Stay tuned for more information as we head toward the Stockholm Major this Fall!
[STORE] – Items purchased from the in-game store will not be tradable/marketable for one week. – Operation Cases redeemed as an operation reward will not be tradable/marketable for one week. – Items received from market-restricted containers will continue to be sellable immediately on the Steam Community Market.
[MISC] – Fixed a rare visual bug with equipped item indicators when equipping a default item into a loadout slot. – Various stability improvements.
We’re gearing up for the road to Stockholm 2021, starting with the first series of RMR events! Over the next several days we’ll announce events for each region, so stay tuned.
If you’d like to learn more about the RMR events, visit our FAQ.
And with the 2021 RMR events fast approaching, it’s time to move on from last year’s results. All 2020 RMR sticker capsules are now on sale–if you’ve been waiting, now is a great time to take another look!
Today we are opening up Broken Fang Premier to everyone.
Broken Fang Premier, which introduces a pick/ban phase to the start of a competitive match, allows players to test their mettle across the entire Active Duty map pool. Pick and ban maps, choose your starting side, and work together to win 16 rounds.
Operation Broken Fang ends April 30th, so now’s the perfect time to queue for Broken Fang Premier with friends. And if you’re an Operation Pass holder, you have one month to complete missions, collect stars, and redeem rewards from the Operation Shop.
Finally, Release Notes for today are below:
[ OPERATION BROKEN FANG ] - For a limited time, Broken Fang Premier is available for everyone. - Operation Broken Fang Passholders will play in Prime Account Status queue when matchmaking for Broken Fang Premier.
[ MISC ] - Fixed Steam networking sockets implementation to dynamically load "wlanapi.dll" system library and to work on Windows Server systems which don't have Wireless LAN Service enabled. - Adjusted Zeus texture to read Zeus X-27. For the record, this counts as a Zeus skin.
All 16 Operation Broken Fang mission cards have been released, including the final Strike mission! But don’t worry if you can’t get everything done this week, you still have until April 30th to earn your stars.
Music Kits
Today we’re shipping three new Music Kits:
Hades - Hades Music Kit
Neck Deep - The Lowlife Pack
Scarlxrd - CHAIN$AW.LXADXUT.
If you’re a fan of Supergiant Games’ Hades, you may already own the Music Kit. If you own the game on Steam and have more than 5 hours of play time you’ll find the Hades Music Kit in your CS:GO Inventory.
Poorly Drawn Stickers
Hand-crafted by HH110011HH and Hoxton with a bit more love than skill, the Poorly Drawn Sticker Capsule is now available for purchase in-game.
We are also including release notes below.
Release Notes for 3/18/2021
[ STORE ] – As a cross-promotion with Supergiant Games, owners of Hades on Steam, after they accrue sufficient playtime in the game, will receive The Hades Music Kit in CS:GO. – Two new music kits – “The Lowlife Pack” by Neck Deep, and “CHAIN$AW.LXADXUT” by Scarlxrd – are now available for purchase in-game. – Added the Poorly Drawn Sticker Capsule featuring a variety of poorly drawn stickers.
[ MISC ] – Fixed “env_fade” entities for “only triggering player” configuration. – Added vscript function ScriptTraceLinePlayersIncluded.
[ MAPS ] - Guard -- Updated Guard to the most recent workshop -- Fixed boost spot on arches (Thanks @FilyandraXBL) -- Fixed nodraw behind CT Spawn (Thanks Mii Fanboy) -- Fixed various spots where players could get stuck on walls (Thanks @FilyandraXBL, Mii Fanboy, Kerluck, @goodchicken45)
[ MISC ] – Fixed a bug that allowed enemy players to spawn outside of their spawn location. – Fixed a case where players would see a second bomb in retakes mode. – Fixed some cases where dropped weapons exited the play area.
[MAPS] - Anubis -- Reskinned the signs and information boards -- Fixed the wallbang through the trim on the mid building between double door and the CT house -- Added some grenade clips to prevent weird grenade bouncing on A heaven
- Engage -- Fixed several visual issues -- Removed boost spots -- Updated Bot NAV (Thanks Ham)
- Apollo -- Multiple exploits, clipping faults and boosts etc. fix based on the feedback of Oliv1er and timure of the MapInk Discord -- Fixed spawn boost exploit (thanks Marius) -- blocked guns going out of CT spawn so much with a big sign. (thanks Fnugz)
- Frostbite -- Removed window glass from buildings to improve gameplay -- Fixed exploit in Town -- Fixed stuck spots -- Fixed certain visual errors -- Adjusted border clipping -- Fixed floating exploding barrel/turret spawns -- Adjusted prop fade distance in the bunker -- Added drone clips to buildings at Tourist and Radio
[MISC] - Pings no longer highlight players. This eliminates any instances of being able to reveal a hidden enemy. - Fixed a bug which caused the incorrect footstep sounds to be played on some surfaces. - Fixed short-handed bonus being given in Guardian mode. - Fixed visual shuffle in map vote at end of match.
Over the past year, the top CS:GO teams in the world competed in regional ranking events for invitations to a Major Championship. Ultimately there would be no Major in 2020, but it is important that fans have an opportunity to celebrate and recognize the hard work of the best teams of 2020. So we’re excited to announce 2020 CS:GO RMR Capsules.
These capsules represent the teams that would have received invitations to the 2020 Fall Major, broken down by their invitation status (Legend, Challenger, Contender). You can find the final RMR scores and standings here.
For these stickers, 50% of the proceeds directly support the teams.
2021 RMR Events We will continue to hold regional RMR events to identify the 24 teams to invite to the 2021 PGL Stockholm Major. In the link below you can find all the details and updates to the 2021 RMR event system, but here are some highlights:
RMR points are reset for 2021, however the 2020 RMR Legends will start with 600, Challengers with 300, and contenders with 100 points.
Teams can now specify a substitute player (any player who is not registered to participate or substitute for another team) that is separate from their coach.
A team incurs a penalty when they substitute out a player in an event, but there is no penalty when that player is brought back in.
During online matches only players are allowed in the room and on the server. Neither coaches nor any other team staff will be allowed in the room, on the server, or to otherwise communicate with the team during an online match.
The full details of the 2021 RMR system can be found here.
Coaching Integrity In September of 2020 we were alerted to the fact that many professional coaches were exploiting a coaching-feature bug to gain an unfair advantage during matches. You can read about our initial response here.
Since then, ESIC has published the findings of their investigation and the resulting sanctions. You can read about them here.
As our follow up, we have decided that coaches that exploited the camera bug will be ineligible to participate in some number of future Valve-sponsored events–that number to be determined by the extent of the abuse.
The following table translates ESIC demerits into Major ineligibility:
ESIC Demerits — Number of Majors to Miss
2 Demerits — 1 Event
3 Demerits — 2 Events
4 Demerits — 3 Events
5 Demerits — 5 Events
6+ Demerits — All Events
In addition to consequences for individuals, we have also thought about how commonly coaches exploited the bug, for how long it went unreported, as well as how common coach stream-sniping accusations have been.
To avoid the diminished integrity of coaching from casting a shadow on the integrity of Valve-sponsored events, we’ll be changing the restrictions on support staff in the following way:
During online matches only players are allowed in the room and on the server. Neither coaches nor any other team staff will be allowed in the room, on the server, or to otherwise communicate with the team during an online match.
