Valve cancels ESL One: Rio Major 2020

Sad news for Counter Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO) players and fans.

The last major tournament for CS:GO has officially been cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, according to tournament sponsor Valve.

In a statement posted at the company’s official blog, Valve confirmed the cancellation of ESL One: Rio Major 2020. It was originally scheduled for May 11 to 24, but was postponed to November because of the pandemic.

The plan was to have a $2 million prize pool with the Rio event, but with the end of the pandemic still nowhere in sight, organizers chose to cancel the event altogether.

“We’re not going to ask players and fans to risk their health in order to attend a Major while the pandemic still poses a threat to travelers. Therefore, we have made the painful decision to cancel the November Major,” Valve said in a statement.

“We’re going to hold off on scheduling Majors until, at a minimum, Regional Major Ranking (RMR) LAN events are safe to hold around the world. Until then, we expect to continue to hold online RMR events to keep track of the best teams in each region,” Valve explained.

“Together with Valve we had to make the tough but safe decision to cancel the ESL One Rio Major 2020 due to the ongoing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We worked through several alternative options down to the last hour to make the Major a reality, but ultimately have to face the fact that the global situation currently does not allow for a Major to take place,” organizer Electronic Sports League (ESL) said in a statement.

With the unfortunate news, 2020 marks the first year since 2013 in which an official Valve-sponsored Counter-Strike Major hasn’t been held.