The first Valve-recognized Major took place in 2013 in Jönköping, Sweden and was hosted by DreamHack with a total prize pool of US$250,000 split among 16 teams.

Since then, the Major circuit has expanded significantly, with recent tournaments advertising a US$1,250,000 prize pool and featuring thirty-two teams from around the world.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve.

The first significant international tournament was the 2001 Cyberathlete Professional League Winter Championship, considered the first "Major".

[1] Swedish teams, most notably SK Gaming,[2][3] dominated early Majors but the Polish roster known as the Golden Five were the most successful lineup.

[4][5] Many teams from other parts of the world would win Majors, including Team 3D from the United States at CPL Winter 2002[6] and WCG 2004,[7] NoA from Norway at CPL Winter 2004,[8] mibr from Brazil at ESWC 2006,[9] and WeMade FOX from South Korea at WEM 2010.

[10] On September 16, 2013, a year after the release of Global Offensive, Valve announced a US$250,000 community-funded prize pool for the first official CS:GO Major.

[11] The money was partially community-funded through the game's Arms Deal update, which allowed players to buy in-game skins.

[12] The tournament took place in late November and was won by the Swedish team Fnatic who upset Ninjas in Pyjamas in the finals.

[13][14] After Dreamhack 2013, Valve announced they would partner with tournament organizers to host three Majors per year.

These Majors are the most prestigious events in the competitive CS:GO scene, and the professional players' legacies are often judged by their performances at these tournaments.

[19] On February 23, 2016, with MLG Columbus 2016 coming up, Valve announced a permanent increase in the prize pool from US$250,000 to US$1,000,000.

[31] In December 2020, Valve moved the 2021 Major from May to October and November, citing concerns over the pandemic.

PGL Major Stockholm 2021 surpassed the long-standing Counter-Strike viewership record 4 times; reaching 2.75 million concurrent viewers in the final.

[39] Team Vitality, a French organization with native star player Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut, defeated dark horse GamerLegion by 2–0 to clinch the final CS:GO Major title.

[41] On January 3, 2025, Valve announced a second expansion of the number of teams to thirty-two, starting with the BLAST Austin Major that year.

The other eight teams, called "Challengers", were decided by regional qualifiers, mainly from Europe and North America.

[43] A small number of teams have been directly invited or earned attendance from a last chance qualifier to fill final open spots when necessary.

[44] Beginning with the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 qualification cycle, Valve created a single 16-team main qualifier before the Major.

[53] Unlike traditional sports or other esports leagues, Valve considers the players in each team to have the Major spots, rather than the organization itself.

VAC is an anti-cheat program designed by Valve to detect cheats running in various games, including Counter-Strike.

If cheats are detected, the account is given a permanent lifetime ban from playing on VAC-secured servers.

Other server providers, such as FACEIT and ESEA, have their own anti-cheat systems and work with Valve to detect new cheats.

Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham was the only iBUYPOWER player not to be banned, as he did not receive any payment after the game.

[citation needed] Although tournament organizers ESL and DreamHack lifted their own bans on the former iBUYPOWER players in 2017,[68] the Major ban effectively ended the high level careers of two of North America's best in-game leaders (Sam "DaZeD" Marine and Joshua "steel" Nissan) and Braxton "swag" Pierce.

[85] These two types of stickers come in a variety of styles: paper, glitter, holographic, foil, and gold.

After Cloud9 became the first ever North American CS:GO Major champion at Boston 2018, a souvenir skin with the signature of the finals MVP, Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, sold for US$61,000.

[89] After certain significant or iconic moments in Global Offensive Majors, Valve has added in-game memorials to the location of the event, usually in the form of graffiti or signs.

[90][91] Thus far, there have been six moments in Majors that have been memorialized by Valve, though one graffiti was removed when Dust II was updated.