it's still a big event. i would consider a qualifier the matches played before to be able to play in Iceland. I get if you win you qualify for Champions but that's just how winning shit in ESL works as well. You qualify for the next event.
Because it was the first time the NA vs EU shit was happening and everyone wanted to see who was better
In CS most teams have already faced each other but people still watch because they still put up really interesting matches
That major was before valorant existed. Also your saying CS lives rent free in Valorant players heads when your the one who’s spent his whole day on vlr arguing why Valorant is dumb and CS is better