CS2’s latest ranked changes will finally stop one-trick ponies, and players can’t wait

Aug. 31’s Counter-Strike 2 update revealed a major update to the in-game ranking system, and players love it for one specific reason.

In CS2, Premier games will serve as the primary competitive system, with players earning points for winning games in it. The current ranking will stay in the game, but each map will have its own. Therefore, one player could be Global Elite on Mirage if they master it, but Gold Nova on Inferno, if they don’t play it almost at all, for example.

Most players are enthusiastic about the change due to the fact they will no longer meet one-map-ponies at higher ranks. In CS:GO, even if you’re Global Elite, you can be matched with players who only play Mirage, but occasionally play other maps, where they’re just plain bad.

“Great, now I can avoid all those 24/7 Mirage players as they’ll be Global,” one player said on YouTube. “I was skeptical about rank per map but it makes sense. Sometimes I won’t play specific maps at my skill level because I’d get destroyed, this fixes that,” another one added.

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Additionally, many players on social media believe Premier competitive mode will now be the major one in CS2. There, similarly to professional matches, each team bans maps out of seven currently available in the competitive map pool, until one is left out. Essentially, it forces players to have knowledge of the basics of each map.

Premier mode has been in CS:GO for a few years now, and personally, I couldn’t be happier to see these new changes entering CS2. It has been working fine so far in CS:GO, and it makes the game more diverse instead of just spamming two or three maps all over again. So, to see it become the main ranking game mode in CS2 makes me even more excited about the eventual full release this summer.