Big shakeup ahead of the Budapest Major — Valve just announced that they’re ditching the Major Regional Qualifiers (MRQs) altogether. Yep, no MRQs for any region this time around.

According to StarLadder, the tournament’s organizer, Valve made the call because they want to keep things streamlined with the new VRS (Valve Regional Standings) system. The idea is to make all community events feel more connected to the Majors, and Valve thinks separate qualifiers are just getting in the way now.

"At this point we believe that a separate qualification process for the Major is both unnecessary and disruptive," Valve said in a statement. So instead of battling it out in MRQs, the 32 teams heading to the Budapest Major will be picked straight from the VRS rankings after the Austin Major wraps up.

Originally, the MRQs were supposed to run online from October 16-19 across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. But that schedule clashed with some pretty major LAN events — CS Asia Championships, Thunderpick World Championship, and MESA Nomadic Masters Fall — which would’ve made things messy.

For a quick refresher: MRQs only came into play this year, replacing the old RMR system. The big selling point? They could be held online, as we saw with the Austin Major. Now, they’re already out of the picture again — at least for now.

What’s still fuzzy is how this change will affect the regional slot distribution. Before this decision, Asia was set to gain an extra spot in Budapest (six total), while the Americas would drop to ten. Europe’s 16 spots were staying put. We’ll get more clarity on that after Austin finishes up. Mark your calendar — invites for the Budapest Major go out on October 8.

So, what do you think about all this? Does skipping qualifiers make the road to the Major feel more fair or just more confusing? Are we heading toward a better system — or is this another layer of chaos?