Valve have clarified several rules surrounding Major invitations and overlapping VRS rosters in a comment to HLTV, confirming what happens when the same player appears on two teams at the invitation cutoff.
The clarification is particularly relevant ahead of PGL Singapore Major 2026, with recent roster changes creating situations where players can remain on an old VRS roster while already competing for another team.
Higher-ranked team gets priority
Valve confirmed that if two teams are registered with the same player, the conflict will be resolved based on their VRS positions.
The team with the higher VRS ranking will receive priority, while the lower-ranked team will not be able to participate in the Major.
This means a player cannot simply choose which of the two teams to represent after invitations are distributed.
The clarification directly addresses a scenario that became relevant following the move of Nikita “cmtry” Samolotov from FUT to Astralis.
cmtry remains connected to the previous FUT VRS roster until a new lineup with Álvaro “SunPayus” García fulfills the requirements for an updated roster card.
If cmtry were to appear on both invitation rosters at the cutoff, the higher-ranked team would take priority.
Four-player roster cannot accept a Major invitation
Valve also confirmed that simply removing the duplicated player from one of the teams would not solve the problem.
A roster consisting of only four players would not be considered intact and therefore could not accept a Major invitation.
This is important because Major invitations are sent to intact rosters rather than organizations independently of their registered lineups.
If removing an overlapping player leaves only four eligible members, that roster would lose the ability to participate.
Player cannot be moved to coach or substitute role
Valve also closed another potential workaround involving substitutes and coaches.
A player registered on the VRS roster of one team cannot simultaneously be registered as a coach or substitute for another team at the Major.
That means an organization cannot resolve a duplicate-player conflict simply by moving the affected player out of the starting five while keeping them registered in another role.
All three clarifications make the status of the roster at the invitation cutoff especially important.
FUT and Astralis situation remains key example
The situation involving FUT and Astralis was one of the clearest examples of why clarification was needed.
FUT replaced cmtry with SunPayus at the beginning of October, while cmtry later joined Astralis alongside Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek.
However, VRS roster changes are not reflected immediately. A new lineup needs to complete the required number of matches before replacing the previous roster card.
That created the possibility of cmtry remaining listed for FUT while also becoming part of the updated Astralis roster before the Major invitation cutoff.
Valve have now made the consequence clear: if the same player appears on two eligible rosters, only the higher-ranked team would be able to participate.
The next VRS invitation update will determine the field for PGL Singapore Major 2026, making the final roster cards crucial for teams still affected by recent changes.
