Counter-Strike professionals reform rankings for work-life balance

The Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association, or CSPPA, has announced a ranking system that promotes its greater goal of improving conditions for its member esports professionals. The more transparent rankings are an attempt to ensure players don't have to sacrifice health in order to be professionals. 

"Current rankings systems incentivise players to play as many matches and tournaments as possible and often fail to afford players and teams reasonable protections in case players are unable to attend matches or tournaments due to health and burnout issues," says the official release. The new CSPPA rankings include protections for players' rankings if they are unable to attend tournaments due to illness or injury.

The new rankings include other key differences from current systems. They are fully transparent, for example, so everyone knows how they were determined. Changes to the rules will be governed by a committee of CSPPA players. The rules also include a limited number of tournaments over a longer, nine-month period and exclude any matches or tournaments which conflict with a general player break.

The final results of the new rankings don't line up with other ranking systems, nor with fan expectations. As reported by The Loadout, CSPPA's rankings differ from rankings by ESL and HLTV. Some fans on social media disagree with the results of the new ranks, and responses to CSPPA's announcement range from mocking and comparisons with other rankings to nitpicking about the precise rules required to rank teams.

The CSPPA, for its part, said in the announcement and on its rankings page that this is a first edition of the rankings. They further said that they were open to feedback on the system from "all members of the CS:GO ecosystem including fans." You can view the rankings, see some of the process behind them, and even submit feedback on the CSPPA's rankings website.