Last Modified: September 9th, 2025.
These rules are subject to change at the administrator’s discretion. If rules should change, all captains will be notified accordingly.
REGULAR SEASON
8 weeks: September 13th – November 1st
Double Round Robin
PLAYOFFS
3 weeks: November 8th – November 22nd
Seed 1 from Regular Season gets a Week 1 Bye
Double Elimination, but Seeds 4 and 5 start in the Lower Bracket.
Week 3 will be a double header (2 sets of games for those still alive)
S# = Seed #
Week 1:
* UB1: S2 v S3 => Winner to UB2, Loser to LB2
* LB1: S4 v S5 => Winner to LB2, Loser Eliminated
Week 2:
* UB2: S1 v UB1-W => Winner to GF, Loser to 3P
* LB2: LB1-W v UB1-L => Winner to 3P, Loser Eliminated
Week 3: DOUBLE HEADER
* 3P: UB2-L v LB2-W
* GF: UB2-W v 3P-W
Player Eligibility: All players participating in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitions must have an active Steam (North America) account in good standing displayed on their Battlefy profile. Only registered team members playing under their own account are allowed to play for a team.
Team Roster Size: A team may start the season with 5-12 participants. Rules for qualifications for rostered members can be found in CEA general rules.
After the beginning of Regular Season play (Week 1 matches), a player rostered on a team in Battlefy may not transfer to another roster within the same company for the same game without the Game Lead’s approval.
The main circumstance permitting a transfer would be a team losing players and falling below the minimum team size.
Companies with multiple teams playing the same game may have players on multiple rosters as outlined in the general rules under “Team Eligibility.” Being a floater is not considered transferring.
After Week 5, removing players from the roster does not free up additional spots.
Registration: The Counter-Strike 2 registration fee will be $200 per team. The captain pays this fee during registration on the CEA website.
Game Version: All players must have their game up to date with the latest patch.
Weekly Structure:
Monday: Matchups for the following weekend are distributed (assuming all previous round match results have been entered) and a map will be assigned for the weekend matchup. Times for each match will be assigned.
Saturday: Times for each match will be assigned. Matches may have variable time slots depending on how many servers we acquire. Typical game times will be 12–2 pm and 2–4 pm Pacific. The CEA observes Daylight Savings.
Season Format: Exact season format will be announced before the season begins when we know the exact number of teams. This section will be updated along with an announcement email for all captains. There will be at minimum two stages: Non-elimination Regular Season (~8 weeks) and Elimination Plays.
Starting Sides: Prior to the start of the game, opponents will have a knife-fight round that determines the starting side. The last player standing will determine their starting side by using chat as their intended starting side.
Game Winner: Each map will be played in two stages of 15 in-game rounds. For each stage (half), the teams play alternatively as Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists and score one point by winning one in-game round. The winner of a map is the first team to reach a total of 16 wins. The remaining rounds will not be played after a team has won the map. If the map ends in a tie—meaning both teams have won 15 rounds—overtimes will be played until a winner is decided.
During overtime, an MR3 (6 rounds) will be played, which means the first team to 4 wins will be declared the winner. After the start of overtime, teams will remain on their current side until 3 rounds have been played, then switch sides. If there is a tie after the 6 rounds (3–3), the teams will switch sides again and restart overtime, playing MR3 until a winner is decided.
Note: At the start of overtime and whenever teams switch sides, starting overtime money will be restocked.
Series Length: Regular season matches will be played on a single map while playoff matches will be played in a best-of-three format across multiple maps with a 5-minute break between maps. The break time is subject to change if the situation requires it.
Player’s Settings:
Players are restricted to modifying/adjusting the following game settings:
cl_bobcycle 0.98
weapon_recoil_model 0
mat_hdr_level 0/1/2
Players are allowed to modify/adjust only the following overlay settings:
net_graph 0
cl_showpos 1
cl_showfps 1
cl_showdemooverlay 1/-1
Players are allowed to adjust the following PC or monitor settings:
Brightness
Digital Vibrance
Contrast
Gamma
3D Settings (aliasing, vertical sync, etc.)
Game scaling
USB HZ
Sound
Mouse Settings + Mouse Drivers
Keyboard
Headset
Regulation Match Server’s Settings:
mp_startmoney 800
mp_roundtime 1.75
mp_roundtime_defuse 1.75
mp_freezetime 15
mp_buytime 1
mp_forcecamera 2
mp_maxrounds 30
mp_c4timer 35
sv_pausable 1
ammo_grenade_limit_default 1
ammo_grenade_limit_flashbang 2
ammo_grenade_limit_total 4
Overtime Match Settings:
mp_maxrounds 3
mp_startmoney 10000
Settings used for warm-up:
mp_maxrounds 199
mp_maxmoney 65535
mp_startmoney 60000
mp_buytime 15
mp_freezetime 0
mp_forcecamera 1
8. Maplist: The current competitive playlist rotation will be used as the maps. Maps will be assigned each week as the matchup is generated.
Players are encouraged to record their in-game perspective unless the recording causes server delay. The Game Lead will investigate server lag concerns.
Pausing
During an official match, players can use the command pause_game from either the console or by sending it as a message with say. The match will be automatically paused after the round ends.
A team can request 2 pauses per map; each pause can last up to 5 minutes. If a team pauses the game more than 2 times on a map or if the pausing time exceeds 5 minutes per pause, the team will receive a warning or penalty.
Only the players from the team that requested the pause may unpause the game—and only once both teams have agreed to resume. Unpause by writing unpause_game either in the console or by sending it as a message with say. Unpausing without the approval of both teams will result in a map loss.
Match Interruptions and Restarts
Players should not leave a game until it has been won or lost, or until they are instructed to do so by the Game Lead.
If a map is involuntarily interrupted (e.g., due to a player’s PC crash, server crash, power outage, network issues, etc.), the match officials may decide to replay the map according to the following rules:
If the problem occurs in the first round of either the first or second half-time, the affected half will be replayed.
If the problem occurs in the first round of the overtimes, the affected section of overtime will be replayed.
If the problem occurs in any other round, players must pause that round and wait until the issue is resolved or until match officials instruct them to continue.
The following actions are strictly prohibited during a game and will result in a round loss (deducted at the end of the match) and a warning:
Using console is forbidden (except to record the game or pause game).
Any form of script is forbidden.
Using bugs which change the game principle (e.g., spawn bugs) is illegal.
Moving through walls, floors, and roofs is strictly forbidden. This also includes skywalking.
“Silent bombs” (i.e., the planting of a bomb which doesn’t make a sound) are illegal.
Planting bombs so that they cannot be defused is illegal. (This does not include situations where multiple players are needed to defuse.)
Boosting with the help of teammates is allowed in general, but it is forbidden in places where textures, walls, ceilings, or floors become transparent or penetrable.
“Fireboost” (i.e., firing below a player to push them) is strictly illegal.
“Flashbugs” are forbidden.
Throwing flash grenades under walls is not allowed; throwing grenades over walls or roofs is allowed.
“Mapswimming” or “Floating” is illegal.
“Pixelwalking” is illegal (i.e., sitting or standing on invisible map edges).
Using 16-bit graphics is prohibited.
Binding +duck to the mouse wheel is illegal.
Using custom (game) files is illegal.
Email Contacts:
Game and Rules related: [email protected]
Business, money, and sponsorship related: [email protected]
Other: [email protected]