Valve Revokes Ranked Status of MESA Nomadic Masters Fall Over Operational Violations

Valve Revokes Ranked Status of MESA Nomadic Masters Fall Over Operational Violations

On August 19, 2025, Valve issued a directive for HLTV to revise the status of the upcoming MESA Nomadic Masters Fall 2025 event, stripping it of its "ranked" designation due to breaches of its Tournament Operation Requirements (TOR).

Violation Details

The infraction centers on Section 3.5 of the TOR, which governs the structure of open qualifiers. Acceptable qualification criteria must remain reasonable, transparent, and non-discriminatory—for instance, based on demographics or region—but the organizers of MESA Nomadic Masters Fall granted certain teams early access to the sign-up process prior to the public announcement of updated dates and format, undermining fairness and equal opportunity.

Scheduling & Financial Concerns

Originally slated for October 15–19 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, internal documents revealed that the event was being moved earlier, to September 23–28, ahead of the October 6 ranking cutoff for invites to the StarLadder Budapest Major—suggesting a potential advantage in Valve’s VRS (Valve Ranking System).

Moreover, reports indicated that organizers proposed a non-refundable $10,000 team registration fee, processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Public figures such as Complexity GM Graham “messioso” Pitt, ENCE Marketing Director Joona “natu” Leppänen, and Partizan coach Dejan “BAXACHA” Atanacković received emails offering this arrangement.

Valve confirmed the violation by stating that providing advance sign-up to select teams breached the transparent process required by Section 3.5 of the TOR.

Community and Talent Reactions

Criticism followed from the scene, including Australian commentator Jordan “Elfishguy” Mays, who took to X on August 14 to denounce the conduct as “unreal behaviour from a TO that is ghosting their unpaid talent”.

On Reddit’s r/GlobalOffensive, users echoed the sentiment. One commented:

“Good on Valve, this is a bad actor attempting to use the VRS system to gouge teams at the last minute.”
— Reddit user.

Another user raised broader questions about integrity in VRS qualification:

“If an event doesn't pay out the prize pool, should that prize pool count towards VRS?... incentivizing teams accepting invites from shady organizers even though they know the prize pool probably isn't being paid out.” 

MESA’s Response

In an update posted at 10:37 (local time) the following day, MESA acknowledged their error in a statement on X:

“While no teams had been registered at the time of the decision, we recognize that our early communication with several interested teams—prior to the public announcement of updated tournament dates—constituted a procedural violation... We take full responsibility for this oversight. MESA is actively revising the structure and timeline of Nomadic Masters Fall 2025 to ensure full compliance with Valve's Tournament Operation Requirements. Our commitment to integrity, transparency, and international best practices remains unchanged.” 

Event Status & Context

The MESA Nomadic Masters Fall 2025 has now been officially marked as unranked on HLTV due to the infractions.

This marks a departure from the Spring 2025 edition of the same event, which followed Valve’s TOR, offering a more structured slot allocation that prioritized both regional qualifiers and VRS‑ranked invites in a transparent manner