CS2 Feb. 28 update: Inferno decluttered, spawns changed on 6 maps, more

Valve’s Feb. 28 update for Counter-Strike 2 is headlined by resounding changes to Inferno, with developers finally cleaning up the map after it fell heavily out of favor among the player base after the launch of the sequel.

Inferno was the crown jewel of the Counter-Strike map pool for a long time and many players were excited to see what Valve had in store for the map in CS2 but a combination of clutter and a “feeling of claustrophobia”—best described by fl0m’s video on the remake—has seen it banned more often than not in the map veto. It all came to a head at IEM Katowice: Inferno was only picked twice at the tournament, according to coverage site HLTV.

Valve devs have responded to these concerns in the Feb. 28 update, smoothing ground movement around Banana and A bombsite as well as removing several obstacles and objects. The arch at Arch has been raised and those playing at top Banana should no longer be spotted behind the plywood thanks to a panel size increase.

Other changes to CS2 with today’s update include the priority change and even outright removal of certain spawn locations on six Active Duty maps, including Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, Anubis, and Vertigo. This change is sure to address contact timings between CTs and Ts and could shake the meta to its core.

The patch also included heaps of bug fixes, as well as music kit cues for the NIGHTMARE Music Kit collection. Here are the full patch notes for the CS2 Feb. 28 update.

Counter-Strike 2 Feb. 28 patch notes

Miscellaneous

• Spawn position is no longer randomly determined when a player reconnects to a server during freeze time. The spawn point sequence is now configured at the beginning of the map and is saved/restored from round backup files:
  • In official matchmaking servers, players who disconnect and reconnect during freeze time will respawn in the spawn point they were assigned at the beginning of the round.
  • On community servers, players who disconnect and reconnect during freeze time will be assigned one of the five spawn positions assigned to the team that round.
  • When restoring from round backup files (which is recommended in tournament settings after disconnects/reconnects), players will spawn in the positions they were originally assigned at the beginning of that round.
• Fixed a bug where players would see a black screen after disconnecting and reconnecting multiple times during a technical timeout.
• Fixed a bug where players disconnecting and reconnecting to a competitive match would incorrectly interact with bot spawning algorithm.
• Fixed some cases where MVP music would not play or would play over round end music.
• Fixed a bug in Deathmatch where kills during warmup would count towards the healthshot reward and Zeus score bonus.
• Fixed players jumping higher than normal when toggling low framerate.
• Fixed an instance of weapon switches sometimes being ignored by the server.
• Fixed smoke shadow rendering issues and improvements to perf.
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash on Linux while alt-tabbing.
• Fixed some cases where a frame rate hitch would occur due to compiling shaders.
• Improved behavior when user input does not arrive on the server in time due to packet loss or client frame rate issues.
• Adjusted various music kit cues in the NIGHTMODE Music Kit box (ISOxo, Knock2, TWERL, and Ekko & Sidetrack).
• Fixed a case where some players in North America would always fail to accept a match on a server in Europe due to SDR choosing an invalid route.
• Players who get kicked from official competitive servers for too many suicides will now be issued a competitive cooldown.
• Adjusted the logic tracking player idle state to exclude round freeze time and timeout periods.
• Chickens no longer interact with dropped weapons.
• Sniper scope overlay no longer appears in tool viewports (such as Hammer).

Maps

• Adjusted spawn location priorities for Premier and Competitive game modes in Anubis, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, and Vertigo.

Inferno

• Fixed community-reported gaps in the map and on the Trike model.
• Raised plywood at the top of Banana to cover head visibility.
• Smoothed ground movement in Banana and Bombsite A.
• Raised Arch exit towards Mid (or “Raised arch in Arch”).
• Removed bench at Arch near Library.
• Removed construction cone at Underpass.

Workshop

• Fix lightmaps being capped at 4k resolution in CS2 Workshop Tools.
• Updated sticker inspect to support wear in 0.1 increments to match sticker scraping.
• Added roughness texture to foil stickers in the Item Editor.
• Updated help system for new sticker features.