Valve has decided to cancel the Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs) for all regions in preparation for the upcoming StarLadder Budapest Major. This announcement was made by the event organizer, StarLadder, who highlighted that one of the main aims of the new Valve Ranking System (VRS) is to standardize community events so that they can more effectively blend with the Majors.

In their statement, Valve declared, “At this point, we believe that a separate qualification process for the Major is unnecessary and counterproductive. Therefore, we’ve opted to directly invite the 32 teams participating in the Budapest Major from the VRS.”

Previously scheduled to take place online in regions like Europe, Asia, and the Americas from October 16 to 19, the MRQs have been canceled due to a scheduling conflict with three significant LAN tournaments: the CS Asia Championships, Thunderpick World Championship, and MESA Nomadic Masters Fall.

The MRQs were introduced at the beginning of the year as a new mean of Major qualification, supplanting the RMRs. Unlike the RMRs, one distinctive feature of the MRQs was their potential for online execution, as experienced during the Austin Major.

The implications of this cancellation on the regional distribution of Major slots remain uncertain. Following the outcomes from the first two stages of the Austin Major, it was anticipated that Asia would receive an additional slot for Budapest at the expense of the Americas, while Europe would maintain its 16 slots. Further clarifications regarding invite allocations for Budapest are expected after the Austin Major, scheduled for October 8.