Host a CS2 tournament

From a new install to a running Counter-Strike 2 tournament, with servers managed from the platform.

This guide takes you from nothing to a running CS2 tournament. It uses CS2 Server Manager (csm) to put many servers on one Linux machine, and the platform to create and control them. It is the shortest path. Other ways to get servers are at the end.

Game modules are not installed by default

In Auto Tournament 3.0 no game module comes with a new install, not even CS2. Until you install the CS2 module there is no Servers page and no map pools. That is step 2. 3.0 is in beta. See What are modules.

You need:

One machine that runs the platform, with Docker.
One Linux machine for the game servers. Debian or Ubuntu, sudo access, at least 8 GB RAM and about 70 GB of free disk. For a small event it can be the same machine as the platform, but game servers use a lot of CPU.
The ports from Server requirements open, so players can reach the game servers.

Install the platform and finish setup

Follow Install, then First login.

After the admin steps you see One last thing: the license. Pick how you use this instance:

Non-commercial: free. Nobody earns money from it.
Commercial: you need a license. You can paste the key now or later, in Settings > License.

Type I AGREE and click Accept and continue. For who needs a license, see Licensing and commercial use. Every game server counts toward it.

Install the CS2 module

Open Admin > Modules.
Under Games, find Counter-Strike 2 in the Available list and click Install.
Confirm the Install Counter-Strike 2? dialog. The module is signed by Auto Tournament, and the dialog says where it is installed from.
When the page asks you to reload, click Reload. If it asks for a restart, click Restart now.

The page comes back with the CS2 pages (Servers and Maps) and the CS2 settings. Then open Settings > Integrations & Webhooks and click Sync CS2 Maps, as in First login.

Prepare the game machine

On the Linux machine, install csm with the command in Install CS2 Server Manager. Quit the menu it opens. Then run:

sudo csm setup-host
sudo -iu cs2servermanager csm instance config backend instances

sudo csm setup-host runs once. It installs the system packages, creates the cs2servermanager user and lets csm run as that user, without sudo. It never starts, stops or updates a server, and it is safe to run again.
Instance mode means every server runs one shared, read-only copy of CS2. Ten servers cost about as much disk as one. Without it, each server is a full copy, about 69 GB each.

The CS2 download is about 69 GB, once for all servers. It runs the first time a server is created, or when you run csm update-game. It can take a long time, so start it early.

Link the machine to the platform

Open Servers. Under Machines, click Add machine. Give it a name if you like, then click Get the command.
The platform shows a csm link command with a one-time code. The code works once and for 15 minutes.
Run the link command as the CS2 user. Use - in place of the code, so the code is read from your keyboard and stays out of the shell history:
```
sudo -iu cs2servermanager csm link https://tournament.example.com -
```
Paste the code and press Enter. If it does not continue, press Ctrl+D.
Install the host agent as a service, so it keeps running and starts again after a reboot:
```
sudo -iu cs2servermanager csm agent install
```

The dialog changes to Connected. The machine is ready. The machine now shows as Online under Machines, with its CPU, memory and disk.

If your platform address starts with http://, the command the platform shows has --insecure in it. Keep it when you build your own command. The link token then travels unencrypted, so serve the platform over https when you can. See Reverse proxy.

The link is one outbound connection from the machine to the platform. You open no inbound port for it, and you need no SSH from here on.

Create the servers

On the machine's card under Machines, click Create server for one, or Create several… for many. Set How many and choose a Plugin preset:

Preset	Plugins
Tournament	Match, essentials and whitelist. Use this for an event.
Practice	For grenades and positions.
Fun	Extras for casual servers.
Custom	You pick each plugin.
Fleet default	The set you saved with Default plugins.

New servers get Ready Up, connect to the platform on their own and show up in the Ready Up fleet list. The first one can take a while, because CS2 must finish downloading.

Two things are on by default:

Automatic scaling starts stopped servers before the bracket needs them and stops idle ones after a cool-down. When all servers are busy and the machine has room, it creates one more. Servers are never deleted. The defaults are 2 minutes of lead time, 10 minutes idle before a stop, and 4 servers per machine. Change them in Automatic scaling on the Servers page.
Failover moves a match to another server if its server dies. See What failover does.

Spare servers count toward the license

Failover keeps spare servers idle, so one is ready when another goes down. Every server counts toward the license, spares too, and so does every server automatic scaling creates. For an event that makes a profit, count them before you create servers. You set the number of spares in Failover on the Servers page.

Teams, tournament and maps

This part is the same for every setup:

Teams: create the teams and their players. See Teams and players.
Tournament: click Create Tournament. Pick the format and Best of 1, Best of 3 or Best of 5.
Maps: choose a map pool. Map veto needs exactly 7 maps. See Maps.
Click Save & Generate Brackets and check the Bracket page.

The full walk-through is Run a first tournament.

Start

Send players the address of the platform and the guide for players. Then click Start Tournament.

For each match, the teams do the map veto on their player pages. The platform picks a free server and loads the match.

What players see

Players sign in with Steam and land on their player page. It shows their next match and, when it is their turn, the map veto. When the server is ready, the page shows the Connect to Server button. Players do not type an IP or a password.

In the server, each player is put on the right team. Players type .ready in chat, and the match goes live when everyone is ready. See Running matches.

Watch and control matches

Open Matches to see live scores. Open a match to see Admin controls: pause, swap teams, restore a backup, end the match and more. They are listed in Running matches.

Demos

If demo recording is on, the server records a demo for each map. It is uploaded to the platform when the match ends, and you download it from the match.

Round backups

CS2 writes a backup at the start of every round, and Ready Up sends it to the platform. To go back, open the match and choose Restore backup. Under Round backups, pick a map and a round, then click Restore. Rounds played after that round are voided, and the match is paused until an admin unpauses it.

What failover does

If a server loses its connection, hangs or stops during a match, the platform notices. With Automatic failover on (the default), the match resumes from the last round backup. It resumes on the same server if that server comes back in time, and otherwise on a free one. The platform asks csm to restart the server that went down, and waits up to 90 seconds for it. If no server is free, csm creates one on a machine that has room, and the match moves as soon as it is ready.

Players see the new server on the match page. The match has a Failover section with the history. With automatic failover off, the match page asks an admin first. An admin can also use Move match at any time.

You set failover, and the number of spare servers, in Failover on the Servers page.

Other ways to add servers

One server, no csm

Use this for one server that you set up by hand.

On the server, install Ready Up with the installer in Install Ready Up. Choose the Essentials bundle.
On the platform, open Servers. Under Ready Up fleet, click Add server, then Create code. The code works for 15 minutes.

In the server console, run the command the platform shows:

ru fleet enroll https://tournament.example.com RUE-7F3K-9QX2-LM4D-P8TW

When the server shows as Online, click Use for matches.

More in Fleet mode. The platform cannot start, stop or create this server, and automatic scaling leaves it alone. Failover can still move a match to it.

Legacy RCON servers

Servers with the Auto Tournament CS2 plugin (formerly MatchZy Enhanced) are added by host, port and RCON password on the Servers page, with Add Server or Batch Add. See Connect a CS2 server. They have no automatic scaling and no failover.