ESL announces immediate switch to Train

8-1-2025 12:01

The newly introduced map has replaced Vertigo in ESL's map pools effective immediately.

IEM Katowice will feature Train

Train has replaced Vertigo in ESL and ESEA competitions effective immediately, the tournament organizer announced on Wednesday.

That includes this month's ESEA Advanced season (starting January 13), ESL Challenger League season (starting January 21), IEM Katowice (starting January 29) and upcoming Impact season (starting with qualifiers January 31).

With the change, ESL follows in the footsteps of BLAST, who confirmed the switch for next week's Bounty event less than 24 hours after Valve revealed that Train would replace Vertigo at the BLAST.tv Austin Major in June.

Train to make tier 1 debut in BLAST Bounty

HLTV has also reached out to PGL to ask about its response, and the Romanian tournament organizer confirmed that its events would also feature Train, starting from PGL Cluj-Napoca in February.

Choo choo

2025-01-08 12:01

161

1 reply

bring back CACHE valve.... _/\_

2025-01-08 17:06

trash map

2025-01-08 12:02

4 replies

vertiglobal mad

2025-01-08 12:33

50% vs 50%

2025-01-08 12:44

nt ohnepixel

2025-01-08 12:54

So close, actually it's "train" map

2025-01-08 13:00

vertigo my beloved

#returnpopdog

2025-01-08 12:03

2025-01-08 16:39

That's good news, even if Train still needs a few improvements in my opinion. I'm curious to see if it'll be playable and balanced.

Yeah the pros need to play and test it to make a well-founded argument for possible changes. And Volvo will probably listen to them.

2025-01-08 13:13

2025-01-08 12:04

Good work, we don't need Vertigo anymore

Should apply a bunch of changes first tbh

2025-01-08 12:05

7 replies

Why? Get pro feedback first, obviously it wont be perfect at launch

2025-01-08 12:22

6 replies

Idk, I already feel like this A site is not viable smh

2025-01-08 12:30

why change it before pros actually break it down? Obviously you can tweak it with feedback from faceit randoms but it doesnt make sense to change it before the pros figure out the map and we see high level team-cohesion on it. Anything else is just double the work load for nothing, and I dont see the problem in having a map not be optimal. Main issue is having it be major ready, I dont really care if it has issues during other tournaments (unless its insanely horrible which it isnt) If Valve have to tweak it a bunch before the pros touch it youre just doubling the time it will take for the map to be in its prime state

2025-01-08 12:47

2 replies

Well, neither do I care about some low tier events, but seeing such a raw product in Kato without any pro feedback yet feels kinda awkward

2025-01-08 12:52

Yeah I could see it being unoptimal if current train is played during kato finals for example but I dont think waiting until after is better and the map isnt horrible

2025-01-08 12:53

Agreed, A site is very difficult to hold. Some changes will probably be made after the first few events. Still excited to see how it plays out!

2025-01-08 13:18

Exactly what they did with Anubis, which is alot better now. Visually Train looks awesome 👍

2025-01-08 12:36

Amazing

mambo

2025-01-08 12:06

Jano top 5 in 2025 is already confirmed youtube.com/watch?v=uUN5vMIkIeM

choo choo perkele

2025-01-08 12:20

GOD allu on his way to become Austin major mvp

2025-01-08 20:08

Nice

2025-01-08 12:10

2025-01-08 12:11

voktsal manaih!!!

2025-01-08 12:12

Can't wait to watch a 20m game on train (including ot)

2025-01-08 12:23

Train is more t sided than Anubis, change my mind. If you get 3-4 rounds on CT, you're a god. That's my feeling from pugs.

2025-01-08 12:29

will be a whole different story if you have 3-4 smokes, mollys and nades ready in connector to block chokepoints.

2025-01-09 02:38

Buddy, you have ivy, 2 gaps on red, ebox/long dog, outside - what smokes? 😂

2025-01-09 11:48

Good

2025-01-08 13:26

#givebacktrainradio The only reason to save as a T was removed and it makes me sad

2025-01-08 13:47

Win map pool if -mirage + cobble or cache when they finished

2025-01-08 13:53

cobble? are you fucking demented??

2025-01-10 04:32

Biskela

2025-01-08 13:54

Train needs some reworking and adjustments ... but overall ... happy it's back in and the changes made to Vertigo made it go from playable > unplayable

2025-01-08 15:30

Really great change here. If it was to replace any map, it was Vertigo.

2025-01-08 16:05

i know it would overwork players drastically to have bonkers map pool depth but I wish each TO would run a different map pool once Cobble/Cache are released.

2025-01-08 16:44

Should have been Dust2 replaced. Boring AF.

2025-01-08 17:25

Valve fked up again as always. Should have been -nuke +train. How you gonna remove the most recent updated map and keep boring nuke?

2025-01-08 17:38

Almost a perfect map pool. Now just need to -Mirage or Inferno (prob prefer -mirage) and bring cache or old cobble back

2025-01-08 19:06

I actually like Vertigo but tbh it's been so long without Train that I am really excited to see it in pro play. Plus, I remember some crazy games in that map.

2025-01-08 20:07