Valve Strips MESA Nomadic Masters Fall of Ranking Status Due to Violations

Valve announced that the MESA Nomadic Masters Fall tournament has lost its ranked status due to violations in the qualification rules. This decision dealt a blow to the organizers' reputation.

The situation drew attention as it involved not only controversial organizational decisions but also potential interference in the participant selection process.

Background
The lan tournament in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, was initially scheduled for October 15-19. However, the organizers attempted to reschedule the dates to September 23-28—right before October 6, the deadline for ranking calculations that determine invites to the StarLadder Budapest Major.

Additionally, the format was changed: all eight main event participants were required to go through an "open qualifier" for 32 teams.

Rule Violation

The key issue was that to participate in this "open" qualification stage, teams had to pay a non-refundable fee of $10,000, with registration on a first-come, first-served basis. Moreover, as confirmed by Valve, some teams received early access to the application process, directly violating section 3.5 of the Tournament Operation Requirements ( TOR ).

The manager of Complexity, Graham "⁠messioso⁠" Pitt, published a screenshot of an email from the organizers mentioning this condition. More details can be found in our separate article at this link. He reacted sharply to the situation:

Open qualifier that is specifically targeted at certain teams.... That isn't an open qualifier is it.

@CounterStrike I know this is new information but action is probably required swiftly before teams starting paying.
Graham "⁠messioso⁠" Pitt

The loss of ranked status was another blow to the tournament, which was already at the center of controversy: organizers cut the prize pool from $250,000 to $100,000, attempted to change the event dates, and previously faced accusations of unpaid prizes. Now, trust in MESA is in even greater doubt.