Three Swiss stages, thirty-two teams, and a Pick’Em we publish before each stage opens and score in public once it is over.
Before each Swiss stage opens we publish our Pick’Em for it: the two teams we expect to finish 3-0, the two we expect to finish 0-3, and the six we expect to advance, with the reasoning next to every name. It is free to read, and it stays up afterwards.
Major matches get a pick on the daily board like any other event, and each one is reviewed once it has been played. One pick a day is free to read in full, Major or not.
Both end up in the same place: the public accuracy record, with the misses left in. That is the part worth checking before taking anyone’s Pick’Em reading seriously, ours included.
Sixteen invited teams. Our ten picks go up the day before it opens.
Eight teams carry over, eight more join. Picks the day before it opens.
The last eight invitations join here. Picks the day before it opens.
A full bracket, published before the quarterfinals begin.
Thirty-two teams, invited from the Valve Regional Standings. Sixteen start in Stage 1, eight more join at Stage 2, and the last eight at Stage 3, so a team that came through the opening stage meets fresher opposition in the next one.
Inside a Swiss stage three wins advance and three losses eliminate. The matches that decide either are best-of-three; everything else is a single map, which is where the upsets live. The playoffs are single elimination and best-of-three, and the grand final is best-of-five.
The map pool is Ancient, Anubis, Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage and Nuke. Seeding inside a stage comes from the global version of the same standings the invitations came from.
| Stage | Teams | Who goes through |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Sixteen, invited from the Valve Regional Standings | Top eight to Stage 2 |
| Stage 2 | The eight survivors plus eight invited | Top eight to Stage 3 |
| Stage 3 | The eight survivors plus the last eight invited | Top eight to the playoffs |
| Playoffs | Eight | The champion |
Each Swiss stage asks for ten predictions: two teams to finish 3-0, two to finish 0-3, and six more to advance at 3-1 or 3-2. Lock them in before the stage starts and get five of the ten right, and the stage counts.
The records have to be exact, in both directions. A team you put in the 3-0 slot that advances 3-1 scores nothing, and a team in your advancing six that goes 3-0 scores nothing either. Putting a favourite in both is not a hedge, it is two ways to be wrong about the same team.
The playoffs are counted separately. The bracket is locked before the quarterfinals, and then three things are asked of it: at least two quarterfinal winners, at least one semifinal winner, and the champion.
Eleven challenges make up the whole set, counting the one completed by activating a Viewer Pass. Four of them upgrade the coin to silver, eight to gold, and all eleven to diamond. The Viewer Pass is Valve’s and it is paid; reading our picks costs nothing either way.
The Major’s matches appear here as they are scheduled, each with its pick and, once it has been played, its review.