HLTV rewrites its Hall of Fame eligibility rules before the 2026 class

A retired Counter-Strike player now knows how long the wait is before a place in the HLTV Hall of Fame can be discussed: 18 months. HLTV, the site that keeps the statistics, rankings and news of the game, published new eligibility rules on June 17, 2026, ahead of the nominations for the class of 2026. The article is signed by LucasAM, a journalist of the site who also sits on the committee that votes.

Three things change. Players of the two most recent versions of the game get fixed periods of inactivity to respect. Players of the older versions get a track of their own on the ballot. And a former player who has moved on to another job in the game, coaching for example, is no longer kept out for that reason.

HLTV, Hall of Fame eligibility rules for the class of 2026, published June 17, 2026.

Two clocks for players of CS:GO and CS2

Counter-Strike has been played at the top level in successive versions. The pages of the Hall of Fame speak of the one called 1.6, then of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, shortened to CS:GO, then of Counter-Strike 2, or CS2, the version played today. The new rules treat the players of the last two differently from those who came before.

A player of the CS:GO and CS2 years has to satisfy two conditions, HLTV writes. The first is 18 months without having played a Big event, a category of tournament that the rules name without defining it. The second is one year of inactivity from the main roster of any competitive team; the main roster is the line-up of five that a team actually fields.

The site then lists what does not break that year of inactivity. An appearance as a stand-in, a player who fills in for a team for a match or an event without joining it, does not count. Neither does time spent on a team that has no place in the HLTV ranking, or on a team where the player was not listed on the team's page on the site.

Until now the wait had no published length. The article that launched the Hall of Fame, published by HLTV on November 26, 2024, said only that people who were no longer actively competing could be inducted, and gave no minimum period. The list of nominees for 2025, published on November 2, 2025, described dupreeh as on the ballot in his first eligible year after retirement, again without a figure.

A separate track for the years before CS:GO

The second change concerns the players who, in the words of the new rules, made their mark on Counter-Strike before CS:GO. They form their own group on the ballot, and HLTV's article sets no period of inactivity for them.

The ballot of 2026 will hold ten names: five from the era before CS:GO, and five from CS:GO and CS2. Four of the ten will be voted in. HLTV adds a condition on the result: at least two and at most three of the four must come from what it calls the 1.6 to early CS:GO era, a quota the site presents as a way to recognize the early stars of the game.

One case is settled in advance. A player who was exceptional in both eras takes a CS:GO spot, the article says, and so leaves the five older places to players whose careers belong to the earlier years.

The earlier ballots had no such division. The list of 2025 sorted its ten nominees by the number of times they had been proposed, four for the first time and six for the second, and stated no quota by era. It only observed that the first class, a year before, had been entirely Swedish.

How a class is chosen

The Hall of Fame is entering its third year. Its classes are chosen by a committee, and the method was described when the first nominees were published, on November 28, 2024.

It ran in four stages. Each committee member first submitted, anonymously, up to five names with one or two paragraphs of reasoning. A board then removed the duplicates and the candidates who failed the prerequisite or scored poorly on the criteria, and kept the most often proposed; it could add one candidate of its own. The members then ranked their five preferred nominees from first to fifth, worth five points down to one. The votes were added up and the nominees with the highest totals were inducted.

Three criteria guided the judgment, according to that article: achievements, meaning significant competitive accomplishments or contributions; impact, a positive effect that lasts after the career; and longevity, the length of time spent at a level of excellence. The board that oversees the project does not vote. HLTV described it as two of its own executives and one representative of the founding partner.

The vote of 2025 shows how tight the count can be. HLTV reported on November 9, 2025, that eleven committee members had each ranked five candidates and that the three players inducted, cogu, markeloff and olofmeister, finished with the same number of points. The rest of the results stayed confidential, the site wrote, so as not to influence later votes.

For 2026, HLTV says the voting process begins in the summer, following the IEM Cologne Major, and that the committee will meet to discuss the nominees. A Major is one of the championships backed by Valve, the publisher of Counter-Strike; the one in Cologne began on June 2 and ends on June 21. The article gives no date for the nominations and none for the result.

The end of the NEO rule

The third change removes a barrier that had a nickname. The rule colloquially known as the NEO rule, after the former player NEO, barred an induction for a playing career as long as the person was active in another area of the game, such as coaching. HLTV writes that it has been eliminated, and gives no reason.

Its origin is in the first texts of the Hall of Fame. The launch article of November 2024 stated that active players and coaches were not eligible. Two days later, the list of the first nominees explained that playing and coaching were treated as one competitive career, and gave NEO as the example: he was not eligible for 2024 because he was considered active.

The page names no candidate for 2026 and does not say who becomes eligible under the new wording. The class of 2025 already included a player with a coaching past: HLTV's presentation of cogu noted that he later coached MIBR, O PLANO and 00NATION.

What the timeline means for a retiring player

To show how the two clocks run, HLTV works through an example with the player FalleN. His retirement in December 2026 starts the clock, the site writes: he could be nominated and voted on in June 2028, provided he is still inactive, and could be inducted in January 2029.

The last step matches the calendar the Hall of Fame has followed so far. Both ceremonies were held in January, during the HLTV Awards in Belgrade, Serbia: on January 11, 2025 for the first class and on January 10, 2026 for the second. HLTV's example counts two years between the retirement and the induction.

Who sits on the committee

The committee now has 12 members. The newcomer is hooch, whom HLTV presents as a former player, coach and broadcaster. He joins the ten members of the first year and Potti, a member of the class of 2024 who was already on the list of eleven published with the nominees of 2025.

HLTV lists each member with a background and a region. SPUNJ, moses, missharvey and hooch are filed as player and talent, the word the scene uses for commentators and analysts. Bleh is listed as talent, and Potti as a player. Three members come from the industry side: gfmidway, Jason Lake and Nomad. Three are journalists: roque_mn, LucasAM and MIRAA. Five of the twelve are listed for Europe, four for North America, and one each for South America, Oceania and Asia. In 2024 the site explained the choice by the wish to cover different aspects of competitive Counter-Strike in different regions.

The committee met in person for the first time at the HLTV Awards in Belgrade, the June article says, and the eligibility rules were discussed and updated there.

Seven members so far, four more to come

The Hall of Fame counts seven players. The class of 2024, the first, had four: f0rest, GeT_RiGhT, HeatoN and Potti, all from Sweden. Twelve nominees had been kept that year instead of ten; the board explained the choice by the high number of notable players.

The class of 2025 added three. In its presentation, HLTV recalled that cogu won two CPL World Tour titles and an ESWC title with MIBR in the 1.6 years, that markeloff was named the best player in the world in 2010, and that olofmeister received the same distinction in 2015, the year fnatic won ten LAN titles, tournaments played in person, including two Majors in a row. Six of the ten nominees of 2025 were on the ballot for the second time, and all three inductees came from that group.

The launch article had announced between three and five inductees a year. A class of four in 2026 would bring the total to eleven. An inductee receives a ceremony during the HLTV Awards, a watch engraved with a Hall of Fame inscription, a special player profile on the site, a place on the Hall of Fame page, and an article and a video about their career.

One more item is announced for the players already inside. HLTV maintains a Hall of Fame map and tells readers to expect an update with challenges inspired by cogu, markeloff and olofmeister.

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