CS2 is apparently just days away but the title’s pros still aren’t convinced it’s anywhere close to ready for competitive play, with some citing a variety of gameplay and tech issues with the beta this week at ESL Pro League in Malta.
The pro players sat down to discuss their experience with the CS2 beta while competing at Pro League, with the teams gearing up for the season 18 playoffs this coming week. Unfortunately, not all of the feedback was positive, with Virtus Pro’s n0rb3r7 not mincing his words about the beta.
“It’s not ready for competitive,” n0rb3r7 said, adding that character movement, a delayed grenade detonation, and smoke blooming are among the worst elements of the beta and he believes they should be fixed before the game launches.
Turkish sniper woxic echoed n0rb3r7’s sentiment about movement in CS2, believing CS:GO’s movement is far smoother. “[It feels like] we are carrying a 200kg bag on your back,” he said of CS2 in comparison.
It’s far from the first time we’ve heard criticism over the sequel’s movement: popular streamer and pro smooya said the same about the game back in July. Despite numerous updates since then, it seems Valve hasn’t got it quite right just yet.
Woxic also hadn’t become accustomed to how smokes felt in CS2. Normally in CS:GO, once a smoke blooms and blocks sight lines, it remains in place until clearing a few moments later. In CS2, however, woxic noted smokes continue to spread in odd shapes after being thrown, leading to coverage inconsistencies.
Valve addressed an earlier issue with smoke bloom in August, supposedly bringing the grenade back in line with its CS:GO counterpart, but it appears—according to woxic and n0rb3r7 at least—it still doesn’t feel the same.
Team Liquid veteran NAF highlighted a number of other issues he had encountered both privately and during a show match at IEM Dallas in June. He said that tapping and bursting rifles in CS2 felt pretty solid, but wasn’t convinced Valve had gotten spraying right at all, going so far as to say it felt like he was “spraying in VALORANT,” in which spray patterns aren’t consistent.
It wasn’t all negative feedback, with Complexity’s floppy loving Valve’s choice to change the length of competitive matches.
“I actually like MR12, it feels like there are extra rounds in MR15 that are just useless,” floppy suggested. He’s also enjoying the extra break he and the team get between scrimmage, with a full 30 rounds of practice sometimes running way too long.
It’s clear the changes to CS2 will take some time to get used to—just like when CS:GO entered the competitive scene over a decade ago. Valve will always keep the game updated and fix any major issues, but time is of the essence if they want to hit Wednesday’s supposed launch—assuming it’s still on the cards and not delayed again.
At this stage, I’m not really holding my breath, that’s for sure.
