BLAST takes back decision not to pay for coaches at Paris Major RMRs

After much controversy on social media in recent hours, Valve and BLAST have decided to back down after implementing a controversial change in logistics for the regional RMR for BLAST.tv Paris CS:GO Major.

The tournament organizers and the game developer had decided to cover the costs of only the five starting players of the teams. This means that a sixth player or the teams’ coaches would not be included when paying for their travel, accommodation, and food. However, after a strong reaction from the community, this decision has been reversed, so six people will have all their expenses paid as in previous Majors.

m1cks’ complaint on his Twitter account worked

On Thursday, February 23, Joshua “m1cks” Micks, current coach of the North American team Detonate, revealed that Valve and BLAST would not pay travel expenses for team coaches at the regional RMRs for the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

For both the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and the IEM Rio Major 2022, both Valve and the tournament organizer were responsible for paying travel expenses for six of the team members. This means that the five starting players and the alternate or coach would be included in this package.

With Valve’s decision not to pay for the travel of a sixth player/coach, there is no doubt that smaller organizations or teams would have trouble carrying their entire roster and coach.

After pressure from many important personalities within the scene, including Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Valve and BLAST have rectified.

In addition to FalleN, Fluxo’s coach Wilton “zews” Prado and OG’s team manager Vladyslava “Vladyslava_Z” Zakhliebina also spoke out against the new policy Valve had implemented regarding travel pay.

Kassad was also part of the controversial complaint

Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunovic, a recurrent on-match analyst tables and former CS:GO coach, also voiced his concerns regarding this move.

Kassad was a bit more direct and said:

“If you are going to ask coaches to do interviews, content and other stuff before/mid/after games and on media days, you may wanna pay for their flights and hotels.”

There will be four RMR competitions at the Blast.tv Paris CS:GO Major, two of them for European teams. These will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the Americas and Asia-Pacific events taking place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and Monterrey, Mexico, respectively.

There is no doubt that coaches are a fundamental part of every team, whether they are in traditional sports or esports. The players are the ones who define the games, it is true, but the coaches have an extremely important role in the development of each player. Advice, tactics, and even constructive criticism are part of the ecosystem of every esports team today.

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