Set up a CS2 tournament and LAN serverFrom preparation to the last round

Published on August 9, 2026 · last updated on November 4, 2026

Preparation: one week before

What can no longer be done calmly on tournament day:

• Check the GSLT - an expired token makes the server invisible. See create a GSLT.
• Plugin foundation up to date - bring Metamod and CounterStrikeSharp to a state that matches the current CS2 version.
• Decide on the map pool and store it as a Workshop collection - see Workshop maps & collections.
• Write configs - one each for warm-up, match and practice.
• Play a test match - the only way to find surprises beforehand.

Particularly important: after every CS2 update, the Metamod entry in the gameinfo.gi may have been overwritten. Check it again the day before.

One server or several?

This question decides the entire schedule, because a server carries exactly one game at any point in time. If eight teams play in a knockout format, there are seven games - on a single server, they run one after the other; on two servers, the first round is done in half the time.

The upper limit of a game can be calculated in advance, and that is more precise than any rule of thumb: mp_maxrounds times the sum of mp_roundtime_defuse and mp_freezetime gives the maximum pure playing time. Add warm-up, knife round, side switch and the pauses you allow. Anyone who knows the values of their match config also knows how many games realistically fit into one evening.

• One server is enough for a group that plays one game after another - warm-up, match, changeover, next match.
• Two or more servers are needed as soon as games run in parallel. Each gets its own address made up of IP and port, and each needs its own token - the same GSLT on two servers leads to deregistrations.
• A backup server is the cheapest buffer against a failure in the middle of the semi-final: prepared, tested and unused if in doubt.

If you run several servers, keep the configs identical and play the test match on each one individually. Otherwise, two servers with different round counts only become noticeable when one game ends earlier than the other - and then the question arises which result counts.

MatchZy as tournament control

For tournaments, a ready system is not a luxury but the difference between twenty minutes of chaos and a clean start. MatchZy covers what a tournament needs:

• Ready system - the match only starts when everyone is ready.
• Knife round with subsequent side selection.
• Tactical pauses with a time limit instead of endless waiting.
• Automatic demo recording - see record demos.
• Backup rounds - after a crash, carry on at the right point instead of starting over.

The backup function in particular is worth its weight in gold on a long tournament day: a crashed match does not have to be replayed.

The match config

Tournaments usually play by fixed rules. A competitive config that you load via exec should set at least:

The decisive thing is to load the values via a config of their own instead of writing them into the server.cfg - otherwise the mode config would overwrite them. The mechanism is described in server.cfg explained. You switch bots off via bot_quota 0, see set up bots.

The schedule on tournament day

1. Start early. Boot the server in good time and connect yourself once.
2. Warm-up phase. Load the deathmatch config so that everyone can warm up - see deathmatch server.
3. Switch over. Match config via exec, load the map, MatchZy takes over.
4. Knife round and side selection via the plugin.
5. The match runs, the demo is recorded automatically.
6. After the match: save the demo, back to warm-up for the next match.

Have the address made up of IP and port and the server password ready for everyone - ideally in writing. Experience shows that nothing costs as much time as ten people looking for the same address.

Between matches: back up and clean up

A tournament day produces more files than you would think: one recording per map and a MatchZy backup file after every round. Both end up on the server, and nobody clears them away for you - backups are self-service throughout via the WebFTP file manager or SFTP.

1. Clean up before the tournament. Download and delete old demos and backups so the space is free for the tournament day.
2. Download after every game. Fetch the recording of the map that has just ended while it is still clear which file belongs to which match.
3. Only delete backups at the end. As long as a game could still be continued, the round states stay where they are.

A running recording ends with the map change - so with a best-of-three, you get three files, not one. How to start, check and play them back is described in record demos; what a loaded backup does and does not do is explained in set up MatchZy.

Decide on the naming scheme in writing beforehand, ideally made up of date, map and both team names. Anyone who improvises it in the evening ends up with three files with almost the same name and cannot find the decisive round again.

When something goes wrong

The three most common tournament mishaps and their quick answer:

• Server not reachable after an update - check the Metamod entry. See server not reachable.
• A single player cannot get in - almost always their network. Cross-check via a mobile hotspot, see ports & firewall.
• Match crashed - continue at the right point via the MatchZy backup round.

Anyone who has rehearsed these three cases once beforehand loses minutes rather than hours on tournament day.

Frequently asked questions