BC.Game CEO explains Valve exception after Major rulebook ruling in Counter-Strike 2

BC.Game CEO Ali “Ako” Muhanned said Valve granted his team an exception to the new region-swapping rule after BC.Game were briefly ruled out of Major contention and then restored a day later. On the All About Counter-Strike podcast with James “BanKs” Banks and Jonatan “Devilwalk” Lundberg, Muhanned described the last few days as a fast-moving effort to explain why BC.Game did not fit the cases Valve was trying to stop.

The sequence was abrupt. Valve adjusted its Major rulebook, BC.Game were disqualified from Major contention under the new rule, and then the team was reinstated by an exception the next day. Muhanned said the path back was not a formal appeal with paperwork and a standard process. Instead, it relied on getting in contact with Valve and showing that the team’s situation was different from the abuse Valve had in mind.

He said HLTV’s Milan “Striker” Švejda helped him reach Valve and understand what needed to happen next. Muhanned credited Švejda with explaining the situation clearly and said HLTV was neutral throughout the process. As he put it, that support helped him move from confusion to action.

What BC.Game told Valve

Muhanned said BC.Game argued that Valve’s rule change was aimed at organizations abusing the system, not at teams built the way BC.Game is. In his view, Valve had stepped in to address roster manipulation tied to dual citizenship, contract terminations and players being denied fair chances. BC.Game, he said, did not operate like that.

Rather than trying to hide its intentions, the organization contacted Valve directly, emailed them and laid out its plan. Muhanned said BC.Game tried to be clear about what it was doing and showed Valve some of the information behind the project. A central part of that pitch was the contract situation within the roster.

“All of our players are on long contracts, our Asian players are actually the ones with the longest contracts, so we are here to stay.”

That was the distinction Muhanned wanted Valve to understand. He said BC.Game was not using region changes to grab a Major place and then walk away from the roster it had built. The team’s contracts, he said, showed a longer commitment, including to the Asian players who were central to the current lineup.

Muhanned also said BC.Game made its case in plain terms. The organization wanted Valve to see that it was not trying to exploit the rulebook and was not planning to reshuffle its roster again after the exception. He said the team’s message was that it wanted the same treatment as everyone else, with the same standards applied fairly.

That point came up again when Banks asked whether Muhanned’s open letter on X, in which he offered to start from scratch, had helped the case. Muhanned said it did, because it showed Valve the mentality behind BC.Game’s approach and what kind of project the organization was trying to build.

“We are showing that we are here to stay. It doesn’t matter if we make the Major or not, that’s the reality.”

He said the risk of taking that public stance was part of the message. BC.Game, in his telling, was not chasing a one-off Major appearance at any cost. Muhanned said the team wanted to be seen as a stable project with long contracts and a plan that would continue beyond a single event cycle, which is why it was willing to push its case even after the initial ruling.

Why BC.Game pushed for Asia

Muhanned also explained why BC.Game proposed a fresh start in the Asia VRS rather than asking to switch back to Europe. The answer, he said, came down to Tyson “asap” Paterson. A return to Europe would have meant removing asap from the roster, and Muhanned said he would not do that.

He said he shut the idea down immediately on the call. According to Muhanned, he had already made a promise to asap, and he intended to keep it. That promise mattered more to him than a possible route back into the European region, even with Major qualification on the line.

“I gave him a promise, we’re gonna keep it.”

Muhanned said BC.Game were lucky not to need the Major to survive, which gave the organization room to stand by the player. He added that he would rather keep his word than remove asap just because there was a chance to make the Major. The Asia route, then, was not only a competitive decision but also a way to preserve the roster commitment he had already made.

That choice tied into the broader case BC.Game presented to Valve. Muhanned said the team’s structure, its contract lengths and its treatment of players showed that it was not trying to game the system. Instead, the organization was presenting itself as a long-term project that could accept short-term competitive risk if that was what it took to stay consistent with its squad.

What else Muhanned said on the podcast

The podcast appearance also touched on subjects beyond the region-swapping ruling. Muhanned said the full interview includes discussion of BC.Game’s future plans, the role of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev in the team, and his view of the s1mple-versus-Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunović dispute on X.

Still, the main point from the conversation was BC.Game’s return to Major contention after the rule change. Muhanned’s account painted a picture of a team that moved quickly, used its contacts to reach Valve and explained why its roster setup did not match the abuse cases behind the new rule. The exception followed after Valve was shown that BC.Game had long contracts, a fixed plan for its Asian players and no intention of using region changes as a short-term exploit.

BC.Game now finds itself back where it started before the rulebook shift, but with its CEO emphasizing that the organization is built for the long haul. Muhanned said the team’s response to Valve was shaped by stability, fairness and keeping promises to players, even if that meant taking a harder path to the Major.