Valve Introduce Coaching Limitations, Penalties for Substitutes and RMR Points Reset

Ahead of the resumption of Regional Major Ranking events, VALVE have updated the rules for their official CS:GO competitions. The main changes are aimed at regulating coaching and substitutes. Besides that, the company has reset RMR-points for 2020 and acknowledged the results of the ESIC investigation into coaching bug abuse.

According to the updated rules, now coaches are not allowed to be present in the same room with players during online matches. They also cannot be in the server and communicate in any way with players. These rules contradict those we’ve seen in LAN-majors, where coaches were allowed to stay behind players backs and could speak with team during tactical timeouts.

The company has also clarified their stance on substitutes and six-players rosters. Although the teams will be able to register one substitute player, each use of this player will result in a 20% point penalty. This change will affect multiple teams that recently expanded their rosters to six players, like Astralis, Vitality and even Natus Vincere.

VALVE have also addressed the state of RMR rating, which has not been updated since October. The company has effectively reset the points, with giving the leaders of last year’s rating a small head start – the Legends will receive 600 points, while Challengers and Contenders will start with 300 and 100 points respectively. The results of the last year’s RMR season can be found on the official website.

Finally, the developers have acknowledged the findings of the investigation by ESIC regarding a historic coaching bug abuse, which resulted in 37 coaches being banned from ESIC-related events. VALVE have decided that accused coaches will not be allowed to participate in a number of upcoming majors, from 1 to all, depending by the extent of the abuse.

Although currently do not know much about the upcoming RMR season, the next major was confirmed to be held this fall in Stockholm, Sweden. The even will be organized by PGL and feature a $2,000,000 prize pool.