The history of CS:GO's competitive map pool
From Dust2 to Anubis, the competitive map pool has featured 11 maps over as many years.
The map pool is one of the most important aspects of competitive Counter-Strike, as teams define a part of their identity around it. Professional players spend hundreds of hours exploring every square inch of each battlefield in an attempt to find a new smoke lineup or angle, anything to gain an extra edge over their opponents.
Nowadays we are used to a standard Active Duty map pool of seven with a veto system that allows two teams to pick and ban maps ahead of a match somewhat fairly, but this wasn't always the case. Both the number of maps and the way they were decided ahead of a match have seen significant changes since the game's release in 2012 and its first Major at DreamHack Winter 2013.
CS:GO's Active Duty Group has hosted a total of 11 maps over as many years. Jonatan "Devilwalk" Lundberg, who was there nearly from the beginning and either played or coached for most of that time, helped us go back in time and walk us through the map rotation, the complications that each change introduced, and what he hopes for Counter-Strike's 2 map pool.
The early days
Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source had their own history with various maps, but the pool wasn't as defined as it became in Global Offensive. "You still had a set, but there were some [differences]. Season, I think, was played in America, but not in Europe that much," said Devilwalk when asked about the competitive group in previous games. "You had Tuscan, Train, Nuke, and different stints with cpl_mill, cpl_strike, and such."
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's beta version was released on November 2011 and received various updates until four maps were available for competitive play: Dust2, Inferno, Nuke, and Train. All of these were remakes of defusal maps used both in Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source, but mainly followed the blueprint from the latter. Inferno and Dust2 were fundamentally ported from their Source counterparts while Nuke and Train were remade for CS:GO with a few changes.
The game was officially launched in August and there were a lot of issues with these maps on release, leading tournament organizers to use different versions for their events. "The Valve maps weren't even used in the beginning," explained the Swede. "There was a competitive edition for every map. Mirage, for example, was de_mirage_se."
One of the most obvious issues was the fog from CS:S also making its way to the new title. The haze was not just unpleasant to the eye, but it also made it impossible to see enemies far away while negatively affecting the computer's performance. These "_se" iterations removed any unnecessary items around the maps such as chickens, flower pots, and weather effects in order to allow an improved competitive experience.
"The reason why they [the _se versions] were made in the first place is because at the beginning, when they released Dust2, they had this kind of fog or dim and you couldn't see over long distances. This was super prevalent, especially on Mirage and Dust2. It wasn't as much of an issue on other maps, maybe a little bit on Inferno Mid, but basically, they made these competitive editions that removed this extra stuff that they [the developers] wanted for realism or whatever reason.
"A lot of people were coming from 1.6, where you had a clear view and it's a simple game graphically. I think a lot of the protest came from the 1.6 camp and therefore map makers helped create these competitive versions. I don't know who did it, but someone did it very early, and those were the maps that were played constantly. We never really played the matchmaking maps."
It took until October for Valve to add another notable entry with the first Global Offensive version of Vertigo added to the game, but it was seven years before it made its competitive debut. The next significant development came in June 2013, when Mirage was added to the game.
The map was a fan-favorite from the 1.6 days when it was known by the name of de_cpl_strike, and was also ported to CS:S and it saw a complete visual rework in GO. The developers explicitly looked to keep the flow and structure of its previous version, but despite some initial backlash following its introduction, the map quickly became a popular one.
Data showed that Mirage rose to become the third most popular on LAN in 2013 and the trend continued for the next 10 years, with it remaining the second most picked in 2023. Mirage has remained in the Active Duty pool unmoved with few significant changes and has been the only map present in all 19 CS:GO Majors.
Cache was introduced to the game with the June 2013 update. The map was initially made in CS:S, but received a port to the new game alongside new visuals from designers Sal "Volcano" Garozzo and Shawn "FMPONE" Snelling. It took some time for the map to become part of the competitive scene, but eventually, Cache became the first community map to reach the professional scene with Operation Breakout's advent in July 2014. It was during this period that Season began to be used as a map at events, but it did not stay in the spotlight past 2015.
The game's first event to become a Major was DreamHack Winter, in November 2013, and thus had the first Valve-sponsored event map pool with Dust2, Mirage, Train, Nuke, and Inferno. A few of the issues that led tournaments to use "_se" versions were toned down by this point and Valve's rules required the tournament organizer to use the original matchmaking maps.
The group stage was a best-of-one GSL with every team banning two maps; the last one left over became the match's battlefield. In best-of-three playoff fixtures teams each banned and picked one, leaving the last remaining map as the decider. Inferno was by far the most popular map at that first Major, it was played a total of 19 times — 10 more than second-placed Dust2.
"I don't think [Valve] were very hands-on at the event. I think it was basically 'you run it like you always have and we'll just have a look,' you know?" Devilwalk recalled. "I think this was also before a lot of cheating accusations, which made Valve step in even further to disable the internet and stuff like that."
The Winter Offensive update came 18 days after the conclusion of the first Valve-sponsored event and it brought two important additions to the game: Cobblestone and Overpass. These two maps were still in their infancy and weren't immediately added to the competitive pool as Valve kept them in the reserved group in order to "collect additional map balancing data prior to a wider release."
It was a good decision. Poor visibility in Heaven made it difficult for attackers to clear the position when going into Overpass' B site while Tunnel was positioned near a ramp that allowed Ts to avoid the chokepoint and overlook Monster from a raised platform. Meanwhile, the Cobblestone remake struggled with model collision, visibility, and various unnecessary objects around the sites. Both maps continued to receive regular updates over the next 18 months as Valve tried to balance the newest entries.
The seven-map competitive pool
Operation Breakout did not only add a new skins case and various map-themed collections, but it also introduced the most impactful change to the competitive map pool to date with Train's removal and the addition of Cache, Cobblestone, and Overpass. This update caused controversy on two fronts. Firstly, it arrived just one month before the start of the ESL One Cologne 2014 Major and it meant teams could not prepare up to standard for the revamped pool. Secondly, it also meant that the Active Duty group was now made up of seven maps, creating the necessity for a new veto system.
Six days after the update ESL announced that ESL One Cologne would use the newly designated Active Duty Map Group for the Major and a new veto system. Each team was asked to ban two maps, in BO1s with the one to play selected randomly between the last three available. The change also affected playoff stage fixtures as both teams would be required to ban and pick one map each before the randomizer would choose the decider. Additionally, no knife rounds were played, leaving the team vetoing first to choose the sides.
These changes proved wildly controversial, first and foremost the choice of maps added to the rotation. "It does seem like neither de_cobblestone or de_overpass is quite ready for serious play," wrote Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen for HLTV after the Major. A few of the complaints mainly focused on both maps' inherent CT bias and Cobblestone's large size compared to other maps, something that Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt believed made the rounds too long. The majority, however, criticized the timing of such a defining update. It was impossible for any team to prepare for three new maps and impacted the quality of play at one of the most important events of the year.
"From a spectating point of view you want the best and you want people to be well-prepared coming into the biggest tournament of the year," said Devilwalk. "There is very limited time to actually practice it and get an idea of how to play.
"Let's say for example, you jump in now with a team and you practice Mirage against a good team. You will kind of see what will work, how they approach it, and what they are trying to achieve on the map, but when nobody knows what the hell is going on, then everything learned during those weeks is going to be completely useless a week later.
"It's a complete gamble to go into a map like that. If you are the favorites you don't want to play it because you will have no control over how it will end up."
The random veto selection was also extremely unpopular, being described by NBK as only fit for matchmaking, while Nicolai "device" Reedtz claimed it was too biased towards the higher seeded team. Unfortunately for players and spectators alike, the randomizing system stayed in place at the Majors for the next three years with very few modifications.
Valve's veto process could have defined a team's whole journey at the Major due to the chance of being eliminated just after a couple of unfavorable picks by the randomizer. "You will always not use 75% of your prep so that makes it really annoying and a bit demotivating to always prep for things that you won't use," Devilwalk confessed.
Various organizers such as ESL, DreamHack, and FACEIT used veto systems in which the whole process was controlled by both teams. "They had some weird veto systems in Valve tournaments," Devilwalk concurs. "It was only at Majors though. No one else used that system in tournaments, it was the classic ban-ban-pick-pick-ban-ban." This veto system for BO3s was the most common at the time and was eventually also adopted by Valve in 2017 at PGL Major Krakow.
Remakes and mini-reworks
Valve addressed some of the Cologne Major's grievances in early 2015 as Cobblestone and Overpass received mini-reworks. The two bombsites on Cobblestone were changed in order to allow the attackers more creative ways to take them by simplifying the courtyard areas, shrinking the sites themselves, and adding more avenues of entry to the Ts. The Sniper's Nest position overlooking the T side of the map was also removed, as was the back area near the B site.
This rework came just a month before ESL One Katowice Major 2015 and the changes seemingly worked as intended. Cobblestone's CT win rate average was 63.1% after its release and plummeted to 50.9% during 2015's first Valve-sponsored event. The latest version of the map then remained in the pool with just a few changes until April 2018, when it was subbed out in favor of Dust2's remake.
Overpass received another important update in July 2015. The train near the B site previously spawned at random times up to 60 seconds after the start of the round, masking sounds and blocking utility thrown into the site. This issue was highlighted at the ESL Pro League Season 1 Finals, where on the second map between Cloud9 and fnatic, the train blocked two of the North American team's molotovs, hindering their ability to control the Water position in executes. Valve fixed the issue three days later, scripting the train to appear early in the rounds to prevent any interference with play.
The Major at DreamHack Winter Cluj-Napoca 2015 tweaked the old veto system for BO1s to a less random structure, in which the two teams alternated bans until two maps were left, at which point the randomizer chose between the remaining pair. This way of deciding the pick-and-ban was also adopted at the MLG Columbus 2016 Major with the same maps available in the Active Duty pool.
Inferno was the next map to be subbed out, in April 2016, by a modernized version of Nuke. The new iteration of the map was introduced with Operation Wildfire and promised to give attackers new tactical avenues and a graphical makeover. One of the most significant changes in the map was the removal of one of the vents between the two bombsites and the introduction of the Decon area.
The map, even in this improved state, was still in its infancy and saw several changes before it became the version we have today. For example, the Hut position still had a window facing Mini while the lower site came with a brand-new room under Ramp, which made life even more difficult for attackers.
ESL One Cologne 2016 and ELEAGUE Atlanta 2017 used the same map roster with Nuke, but it wasn't initially a popular choice among teams. The Major in Germany only saw the map played five times across the offline qualifier and the main event while the number only rose to eight at the tournament in America.
The map's unpopularity was not limited to Valve-sponsored events. Figures show Nuke was played only 47 times between its introduction to the pool and the end of the Cologne Major. The most egregious example came later that year at ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals, where Nuke was not played once out of the 43 maps at the event.
Despite Nuke's issues and its unpopularity, Dust2 was the next map to be removed from the Active Duty pool. Counter-Strike's most iconic map had become stale both in matchmaking and in competitive play, leading the developers to replace it with Inferno's rework in February 2017. The change was made five months before the start of the PGL Krakow Major, but the map quickly saw action at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas and it was an immediate hit. Unlike Nuke, the new version of the map quickly made into into the pool of teams like North and Gambit, who picked it due to its similarity to the previous version.
More map-related changes came in succession and the second Major of the year, PGL Krakow, finally caught up to wider trends as the map randomizer was removed from the veto process. The tournament in Poland adopted the standardized veto system used by other events, giving teams full control of the map selection process.
ELEAGUE Boston 2018 continued to highlight Nuke's issues as another Major went by without much action seen in the power plant, with only two matches played on it across the whole event. Valve finally addressed some of the grievances that plague the level with the February 2018 update introducing extensive changes to the outdoor area and the A bombsite.
The patch removed the catwalk connecting the top of Mini to the Heaven position, severely hindering the CTs' ability to dominate Outside. Additionally, the platform on the upper site was made inaccessible and the window on Hut facing Mini was removed. All of these changes were aimed at making the map less CT-sided and simplifying various avenues of attack for the Ts.
Counter-Strike couldn't last long without Dust2 in the competitive pool and the iconic map officially returned to the spotlight to replace Cobblestone. The Castle-themed level had been difficult to balance despite the many changes and it had been readily declining in popularity up until its removal — it was the second-least popular map in 2018 at Big Events, only behind Nuke.
"I don't like maps where CTs' best option is gambling. You dumb down CS to a level where I think the map becomes bad," Devilwalk said. "I think that's why I don't like Cobble, for example, because CTs have very bad offensive options and if they make these offensive decisions, they gain so little out of it.
"The sites in Cobble are definitely a problem, but for example, if you default on T side then you have to take A Halls to the right and you need to take it because otherwise it's always going to be B. It's very hard to just run through Mid Doors and up A site on Cobble without having Halls control because that means you'll then have a 360-degree angle to clear. If they just have one guy A hold you just lose."
This latest map pool change proved to be one of the most significant ones in competitive history. Cobblestone was Astralis's permaban over the previous 16 months and its removal helped catapult the Danish quintet into new heights. Their mastery over maps such as Inferno and Nuke combined with the removal of their worst map played a big role in the creation of the dynasty that ruled over Counter-Strike until 2019.
Dust2's new version did very little to solve some of the pressing issues with the map such as the CTs' dependence on early smoke grenades to cover their crossing to the B site. This version of the Active Duty pool followed the same pattern that the previous two did, lasting two Majors before the next change was enacted.
The basis of the modern competitive pool
Vertigo was the next entry to the Active Duty group, introduced 25 days after the conclusion of IEM Katowice 2019 and seven years after its initial introduction to the game. The map received several changes in the days before its debut as a competitive mainstay: Both bombistes were reworked with special care towards the B area, while Valve marketed its verticality, which was made the design's focus and compared it to maps with similar features such as Nuke and Overpass.
Cache was dropped to make space for Vertigo, concluding its five-year chapter in the competitive pool. The map had fallen in popularity as many people in the community thought the gameplay had become stale and needed to be rotated out and reworked. The public didn't have to wait for long to see a new version of the map, as in September 2019 the remake was showcased during the ESL One New York showmatch, displaying the map's new graphical improvements and features. The new Cache remained committed to its old layout with minor changes around the truck area to enable easier CT retakes and a new window in Mid connector.
Despite the rework and the changes, Cache has yet to make it back to the Active Duty group four years later. The map received criticism due to severely affecting performance on many PCs compared to its previous version, while the color palette, which became much more green due to added foliage, and layout made it difficult for players to spot enemies around the map.
The next significant developments came in 2020 as Anubis and Ancient were introduced to the game in March and December, respectively. The Aztec-themed map was the next to make the jump to the Active duty pool just as the Counter-Strike world began its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and made its way back to LAN in May 2021.
Ancient replaced Train in the competitive group, marking the first change in more than two years. The map change was met with controversy from several community figures, but it mainly focused on Train's removal, with some surprised Dust2 or Mirage were not the ones removed.
The map pool of Ancient, Dust2, Inferno, Vertigo, Overpass, Mirage, and Nuke remained untouched for the next three Majors and was only changed after IEM Rio 2022, when Anubis was introduced to the competitive group. The update came in November and made the latest entry just the second-ever community map to be introduced to the Active Duty group, following in Cache's steps.
The swap also showed that Dust2 required a much more significant rework in terms of gameplay. Valve tried addressing some of the community's grievances by flipping the doors on the B site entry and blocking the Ts' view into Mid with a bridge, but it wasn't enough to bring fresh air into the map.
Anubis was the winner of the Exotic Places CS:GO Mapping Contest 2019, a community mapping contest held by Mapcore and sponsored by FACEIT. Roald van der Scheur, Michael "Jakuza" Jako, and "jd_40" were the men behind the map's creation. Shortly after winning the contest Valve decided to add Anubis to CS:GO's Scrimmage maps before it made its way to the competitive pool after a few changes in 2022.
Counter-Strike 2 and the future
Valve has stated that Counter-Strike 2 will hit the shelves this summer, but have only released three maps from the current group, all of them without any major changes. It's still up in the air whether the developers plan to introduce any new maps to the competitive map pool, however, Valve have already shown that maps like Overpass and Italy have been rebuilt from the ground up.
Devilwalk wishes to see more rotation in the pool in the future. "I would have it that just after a Major we changed two maps," explained the coach. "On the day of the final, we get revealed what maps are going to be removed and the ones that get into the map pool and then you have until the next Major to practice it, instead of months after a Major.
"I would prefer a little bit more of a map rotation, but with intent, with a balance between puggy maps and tactical maps." The coach's opinion was also fueled by a belief that Counter-Strike is moving away from tactical maps. "It's more about individualistic decision-making and aim rather than what areas you can take and how you can take them to gain control and therefore be able to enable further tactical approaches."
Devilwalk's desire to see different maps, hopefully leaning on the tactical side, has seen him back Tuscan for a potential spot on the map pool. "I am a big fan of Tuscan from 1.6, huge fan," he confessed. "That map plays so differently for CTs compared to other maps, you need a lot of people to hold everything, but you have a lot of aggressive options.
"You can challenge down Mid, you almost have to be aggressive as CT and take more map control than you have as T. You need to be in these risky positions, rotate around and you need a lot of people to defend, but you can play very aggressive and very defensive and more reactive. It gets a bit harder if you leave all the control for T, but it plays differently from many other maps."
Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov
Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko
Mike 'shroud' Grzesiek
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