A vote on whether FACEIT matches keep the knife round, or pick sides at random instead. The winning option goes live as a test for Season 10 on December 09. You can vote here.
What are the two options?
Keep the knife round, where the team that wins it chooses which side they start on.
Remove the knife round and pick sides at random when the match begins.
When does the vote open and close?
The vote goes live on November 06 and closes on November 12.
Who can vote?
Any player on FACEIT can vote.
What happens after
When is the result announced?
We will announce the vote in the days following the vote closing, after we monitor the feedback, and decide on our final implementation.
What does "goes live as a test" mean?
We will monitor the results of the vote and the feedback given on social media before deciding on a final implementation of the poll results.
What if the vote is close?
If it's close to 50/50, we'll explore options for how best to address the feedback surfaced in the poll.
The knife round itself
What does the knife round do today?
It's played before the first round of every FACEIT match. The team that wins it chooses whether to start on CT or T.
What would random sides look like?
Each team is assigned a starting side when the match begins. The match starts straight from the first round, when all players have connected to the server.
Does the vote affect every queue?
Yes. Free, Premium and Super matches would use the same system. ESEA League would continue to have a separate, more competitive ruleset.
Why vote now, a month before Season 10?
So there's time to act on the result. Voting this early means the winning option can be built and tested before December 09, and if the vote is close, there's time to work on offering a middle option.
Why put this to a vote at all?
Because it's a question about how a match feels, not how it's balanced. Some players see the knife round as part of competitive Counter-Strike. Others see two minutes of dead time between them and the first round. There's no data that settles that, so we want to start a conversation about what is best.
Why only two options?
So the result is clear. Keep or remove is a question every player can answer. If the result is close, we will consider other options to address the feedback raised alongside the vote.