ESL to introduce Ancient into map pool for IEM Summer

13-5-2021 00:00

The new map will feature in all ESL Pro Tour events starting next month.

Ancient will be introduced into the map pool for all ESL Pro Tour events starting with IEM Summer, ESL has announced. The decision was made following discussions between the tournament organiser, the ESL Pro League player council, and the Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association (CSPPA).

Ancient was added to the Active Duty map pool on May 3 as a replacement for Train in what was the first change to the pool since Vertigo replaced Cache in March 2019. Valve then clarified that the new map would not feature in the current round of Regional Major Ranking (RMR) events, which offer points towards qualifying for the PGL Stockholm Major.

IEM Summer will be the first ESL Pro Tour event to feature the new map

IEM Summer is set to run from June 3-13, with $250,000 on offer. It will feature six of the top ten teams in the world rankings, as well as 11 teams inside the top 20.

Earlier on Wednesday, ESL announced a collaborative effort with BLAST to create a "unified approach to the governance of scheduling tournament dates, rulebook alignment and integrity policies." It remains to be seen whether these aligned policies will see Ancient introduced during the BLAST Premier Spring Final, the culmination of BLAST's tournament circuit for the first half of the year, with the event taking place right after IEM Summer, from June 15-20.

hell no

2021-05-13 00:02

25 replies

rippppppppppp

2021-05-13 00:03

15 replies

and boring maps like Mirage and Dust2 still in active pool

2021-05-13 03:32

14 replies

you're boring dud. mirage best map

2021-05-13 05:57

13 replies

its the only map u ukrainians and russians bother to learn and play. if u played any other map then you would most likely enjoy them more. mirage is a shit map, which is overhyped and overplayed.

2021-05-13 09:40

12 replies

if it's a shit map why are pros playing it?

2021-05-13 09:51

6 replies

Pros are playing it because it’s been around for awhile so pros know the map well and it’s still in the map pool so why wouldn’t they play it? However this does not mean that it isn’t a boring map.

2021-05-13 21:34

5 replies

then why are they playing train less ?

2021-05-13 21:32

4 replies

Lmao I’ve seen train being played more recently than mirage in pro events and on faceit nt

3 replies

hltv.org/stats/maps?startDate=2021-04-13..

2021-05-13 21:35

2 replies

Ok sure mirage is being played a little bit more than train but that’s because more people know it well. That’s not to say that mirage isn’t boring and shit.

2021-05-13 21:48

1 reply

pros don't play on aztec nor dust because they're actually bad unlike mirage

2021-05-13 21:49

you need some fresh air dud. mirage is a good map and the fact that you are bored with it is just bad for you. also you want to learn to wipe ur ass better, thank me later.

2021-05-13 10:59

+1 mirage got stale and boring. inferno>>>mirage and still people ban it instantly

2021-05-13 12:27

Overpass is best map

2021-05-13 15:21

2021-05-13 16:20

lol, ukranians and russians only geek dust2 and train, mirage is international favourite :)

2021-05-13 19:11

RIP TRAIN!

2021-05-13 00:10

I doubt we will see much of it anyways, most will just ban it

2021-05-13 00:18

Only the first month. Than it'll be like Vertigo. No one minds playing it

2021-05-13 00:36

It took half a year for Vertigo to be established as a map

2021-05-13 12:28

Hell yea! Any change is good change, even if they remove my teams strongest map

2021-05-13 00:51

+1 Hell yea. Im tired of seeing the same maps being played. Cs need more maps into the rotation. I dont understand why a big part of the community are so against changes..

2021-05-13 19:36

Just happy sticking with old ways, very resistant to change. Krieg was OP as fuck for 6 years before anyone even noticed

2021-05-13 19:59

F for Train

2021-05-13 01:11

Sometimes, you can barely differentiate the CTs (default agent) from the dark background lol. They need to improve the contrast, since the map already seems CT-sided.

2021-05-13 05:24

ITS HAPPENING

Pog

2021-05-13 00:32

pogn't

2021-05-13 00:43

Not pog

noooooooo

lol

thank god

Ez4ban trashient

good

nice

2021-05-13 00:04

meme map

Better than Vertigo

2021-05-13 01:23

real poggers here

-1

2021-05-13 00:05

Nice interesting, but probably many perma bans?

18 replies

Some teams already going on it hard, OG for instance are forced between ancient and vertigo so it's unavoidable

2021-05-13 00:06

17 replies

Ah yes NaVi as well, but the chance the other team bans it is big as well, no? Hope to see it tho but I find it a bit too much angles (holes) and dark places)

2021-05-13 00:07

7 replies

Big did play vertigo so I'm not sure OG and NaVi are primarily the ones that will 100% at some point be playing ancient

2021-05-13 00:13

Not 100% wtf. They might choose vertigo.

2021-05-13 00:17

Idk OG have teased it before but I doubt they want to play it anyway

2021-05-13 00:44

navi permaban vertigo iirc

2021-05-13 12:30

s1mple said that navi would play ancient

2021-05-13 00:42

On stream? That’s cool, looking forward to it

2021-05-13 01:07

yeah he said he will play awp on A which is expected

2021-05-14 11:24

At least we know OG played ancient, but they probably play vertigo

2021-05-13 00:15

8 replies

#50 they were teasing Vertigo right before NBK and ISSAA got benched/left or whatever, so they have 100% worked on it I feel like But I think that since those roster changes they have a lot to figure out again and so we wont be seeing it until they need a 200iq map veto at the Major or something

2021-05-13 00:55

If they even get to the major

2021-05-13 08:49

Looking at the current teams in EU OG shouldn't have an issue, they should at the very least just scrape through as contenders It depends if they go out last here and DBL or Hyenas have good runs though, that could push them out

2021-05-13 09:16

OG is kinda low ranked so the seeding in RMR events is bad for them which means that they have to play against top teams on the first round which causes a high change of them dropping to lower bracket, where they have to play "with their backs against the wall"

2021-05-13 12:24

Tbf OG are such a weird team that they can on their good days beat anyone other than i'd say Heroic NiP and Gambit, although I think they could make a close series OG do best when they sink to the lower bracket anyway somehow, although I dont see them getting any further than past Vitality in this event

I'd wager OG playing Ancient over Vertigo, they haven't played the map yet in officials because Biskela in his infinite wisdom doesn't like the map and so they never learned it It was idiotic that OG made it their permaban, despite by some miracle winning the opponents map pick most of the time they don't ever get to dictate anything in the map veto. Every team plays inferno, dust and mirage. What are you really going to do to those teams if you don't even force them out of their favorite maps?

2021-05-13 16:07

Yea I've noticed this as well and I think it's pretty idiotic but they do have ok success all things considered It's time they learn it through, it'd allow them to push higher

2021-05-13 17:05

They have to learn all 7 to be competitive, I don't think they have long term success otherwise Only if you're a constant top 5 team it's sort of ok to have a permaban, otherwise you're losing performance on the maps everyone else plays and not trying to one-up them

2021-05-13 17:18

blwegh

2021-05-13 00:08

why?

fix this map first wtf

not 100% sure but volvo will probably do a lot of patching, adjustment, etc. in the coming weeks/months. I hope many issues will be fixed by the time officials start on it

2021-05-13 02:38

Instead of train??? What were they thinking

2021-05-13 00:14

2021-05-13 12:29

why can't it be for iem fall or winter its too early

they have a month...

2021-05-13 12:26

pros play more or close to 10hrs a day, they'll figure out an initial meta in a month.

2021-05-13 16:08

First tier 1 event! I’m exited!

2021-05-13 00:16

Can't wait to see pros fighting for mid

80fps peek incoming

9 replies

Only on your shitty computer. have a ryzen 3600, never got below 180

2021-05-13 00:33

tf do u mean americano, map is unoptimized af, still cant get quite same fps as on other maps

Stfu poor

2021-05-13 12:01

Upgrade to source 2 so we can get rid of these god damn potatoes for computers. I mean 80fps in csgo, sheeesh..

2021-05-13 20:09

Someone got their panties in a twist jeez

2021-05-14 01:04

'poor' xd, typical american kid

2021-05-15 19:40

You're the one crying about fps

2021-05-15 21:14

nah, im fine with my 200-300 fps

2021-05-16 10:12

Then quit crying, they'll ofc optimize the map

2021-05-16 13:29

finally -train

will be cool with a new map and see how players adapt

Hell yes, thats amazing

2021-05-13 00:22

Nice, exited to watch

2021-05-13 00:23

ESL now just needs to keep Train in for Mirage #becomeahero

2021-05-13 00:25

NICE!!!

right now ancient is a bad map, but i believe in valve because of what overpass was and is today, regardless the jungle temple theme is going to be very enjoyable and it will be exciting watching pro cs on it

2021-05-13 00:26

Bad map atm. I hope valve keep updating this map

this need to happen for valve to fix the map

2021-05-13 05:20

Obviously, but this is the only way, otherwise people wont play...

2021-05-13 09:44

POG

Nice. That took it's time

2021-05-13 00:41

oh god gl

KEKEKEKKEKEKEKKEKEW Please No !!!!!!!!

2021-05-13 01:08

Oh god no

2021-05-13 01:12

NICE

2021-05-13 01:20

Train is boring af I love this change cuz Ancient has Aztec vibes

2021-05-13 01:22

pog

2021-05-13 01:27

I would've probably waited to keep the map pool the same as the RMR events. Now all it's gonna do is make Ancient a floater map for every team, and the one team that decides to practice it is gonna have it permabanned against them

2021-05-13 01:57

expected

2021-05-13 02:21

RIP cs go

Very nice. Ancient is good map, love to see how pros are playing it

2021-05-13 03:09

2021-05-13 08:41

Sad for Train. Excited to watch the play in new map.

2021-05-13 04:43

Cant wait to see some new highlights/graffiti plays!

2021-05-13 08:34

cant wait

2021-05-13 09:06

gr8!

For all the teams with permaban it will be a logical choice. Example, if I was Astralis I prefer to start learning Ancient with the other teams instead of having to start working on Mirage that is a map in which most of the other pro teams are already very proficient

2021-05-13 09:52

Actually good map

2021-05-13 10:34

excited to see different strats

2021-05-13 10:45

Pathic Community. Lots of players cry because there‘s barely changes on the game and people leave to valorant, but if changes finally are made they cry again and blame the new map. Just wait and see how it adepts maybe? In Vertigo and Overpass came 2 very nice and refreshing Maps, Ancient might be just as cool as those two. Even that i don‘t play vertigo myself i always enjoy watching progames on it.

2021-05-13 11:00

+10000

2021-05-13 11:21

Complaining about new maps is the dumbest move cs fans can make. Those maps they complain about are going to be changed anyways, they're new, nothing is set in stone yet. Playing mirage 7/10 games makes people's brain mush

2021-05-13 16:10

+1. my friends only wanna play mirage, d2 and inferno, sometimes cache when they're in good mood. totally boring dumbshit, I refuse to play mirage, d2 and inferno when I soloQ.

2021-05-13 18:09

finally

2021-05-13 13:19

ancient gonna be a god tier map just give it time. same thing happened with vertigo

2021-05-13 13:49

Good, but I'm really sad that Train will be gone :(, I like this map a lot. I will miss it.

2021-05-13 14:20

it'll come back stronger for sure! I also hope for a cobble comeback!

2021-05-13 18:11

Cobble comeback won't ever happen.

2021-05-14 18:19

LETS GOO, curious about how this map will be played

2021-05-13 14:37

the most idiotic thing they've ever done

2021-05-13 15:44

Hate to be a negative nancy but Ancient is not great and Train kinda is, imo at least. On the bright side, though, it's nice to see a major change like this happen in CS in general even if I personally don't actually like the specific change. Cheers to ESL and the CSPPA for giving it a crack, stagnation is not good for anyone. GL!

2021-05-13 16:00