CS2 players bash ‘unoptimized’ game as Molotov bug plays havoc with FPS

With the pro scene on pause for the mid-season break, Counter-Strike 2 players are turning their ire back to the state of the game, with some this week reporting a significant performance hit and a heavy FPS drop due to simple poorly thrown Molotovs.

A CS2 player showcased the emerging Molotov bug in a June 23 post on the game’s /r/GlobalOffensive subreddit. While practicing with friends in a lobby, u/Pangolin-Individual showed just how much their game’s performance was impacted by throwing a Molotov and having it explode mid-air instead of landing it on the ground. An aerial Molotov has no impact on the game state; the grenade needs to land on a flat surface to spread its flames, but a peek at the FPS counter sees a huge dip—over 200 frames.

Many others (myself included) confirmed this theory too, and the performance impact isn’t limited to Dust 2—although I noticed less of a drop when the Molotov explodes indoors as opposed to in direct sunlight outside. “Holy shit… just tried it—from 250 FPS to 90. This game needs a huge performance update,” one player said.

Counter-Strike players are now even contemplating forming new strategies based around intentionally misthrowing their Molotovs to affect a defender’s performance before swinging. Others are deciding it might be best to start turning away from Molotovs to avoid the FPS drop like you would a flashbang. “This could genuinely be a way to peek an area if it is a rendering issue so you could doge it like a flash,” one suggested in the same thread.

Since returning from a break, Valve’s CS2 team has been at work deploying nearly daily updates to fix minor issues (interspersed with content drops like skin rentals and VAC ban waves). However, between this, a similar FPS issue when opening the scoreboard, and laggy moments when interacting with water in CS2, it’s clear Valve should make another optimization pass before going huge with any new content releases.

Rumors suggest the game’s next operation is on its way, so here’s hoping there’s a little in the way of improvements alongside it, should the update arrive.