Now that the group stage (all three of them) of the Major has come to a close, it’s time for us to say something: this needs to be the last time we see BO1s at a Major.

Seriously, we know they provided a lot of fun, but they just have to go.

We’ll never lament getting to laugh at a team with the reputation of Falcons going 0-2 because of losses to B8 and Lynn Vision - who would we be if we did? - and we know they didn’t rescue themselves in the BO3s like MOUZ did a stage later. But would they have ever been in that place if they didn’t have to play a BO1 at all?

We’ll never know, and that’s the problem.

There’s also the fact that Vitality, who have been on an incredible winning streak this year, saw that streak unceremoniously come to an end at the hands of Legacy.

That would be fine if it took place in a BO3, but that’s not what happened. It happened in a BO1. On Inferno. Where half of the rounds were decided by a single important kill that happened through a smoke.

Okay, maybe there’s two issues there.

Still, Vitality’s streak should have ended in a BO3 or BO5. A game that truly represented the skill and willpower it took for a team to overcome them, not the potential fortune they may have had on one map. Would Legacy have beaten Vitality in a BO3? We highly doubt it, and we reckon you do, too.

The fact is that the current format of the Major makes it entirely outdated within the Counter-Strike calendar. Every other event scrapped BO1s long ago, they simply just do not make sense in an era where Counter-Strike is played with MR12. The games are too short, the opportunities for adaptation are too few, and the economy too punishing.

We’re also yet to see the second problem with the Major: The fact that the final will be a BO3. Another thing long abandoned by tier one TOs.

We’ve grown accustomed to BO5 finals in CS2, and it’s unavoidable that they represent a far better display of who is truly the best team when a winner is crowned. A true battle of the mind and of skill on the server, BO5 finals are far superior, and it’s a shame that we’ll be losing that in the biggest tournament of the year.

Sure, the best team often still wins, and there’s perhaps only one surprising team in the playoff, but that doesn’t stop this BO1/BO3 format from being outdated, nor does it prevent the way we got here from also feeling like it isn’t truly representative of what we’ve seen for the rest of the year.

BO3s just feel more legit. There’s no quarrel when someone wins one, the rest of the CS world acknowledges this, and Valve should too.

Making the change won’t make the Major magic cease to exist – it will simply be all the better for it.