Valve nerfs M4A1-S in latest CS:GO patch, brings major changes to Ancient

The magazine size of the Counter-Terrorist rifle has been reduced.
Image via Valve

A new CS:GO update has hit the live servers, answering part of the community’s wishes to nerf the M4A1-S and to remodel Ancient, the last map to enter the competitive pool.

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The M4A1-S has been at the center of debate among professional players since September 2021, when Valve buffed the rifle’s body damage. Many pros immediately started playing with the silenced rifle and abandoned the M4A4, not only because of the buffs but also because the M4A1-S is slightly cheaper.

To balance the M4A1-S, Valve has reduced the magazine size of the rifle from 25 to 20, effectively reversing a buff that was made in March 2019. This change could have an effect because now people should consider whether it is viable to spam bullets through walls and smoke grenades as the magazine size has been reduced.

In addition to the M4A1-S nerf, Valve has also made lots of changes on Ancient, such as reworking the Cave area and the two bombsites. Ancient is one of the most CT-sided maps of the competitive pool and these changes hopefully will balance the gameplay. The patch also brought minor changes to Cache, Vertigo, Inferno, and Vineyard.

Here are the full patch notes of CS:GO’s June 15 update.

Gameplay

  •  Reduced the M4A1-S magazine size to 20 bullets, with 80 in reserve.

Maps

Ancient

  • Remove cratestack outside of “cave” location.
  • Fixed pixelgap from inside “cave” towards T mid.
  • Fixed ground clipping bugs in mid causing players to go slightly airborne.
  • Smoothed out ground outside of “cave” down towards B ramp.
  • Blocked archeological dig inside of “cave”.
  • Smoothed out corners in “donut” room.
  • Added additional cover near pillar on B.
  • Blocked one sidepath exit towards A site, widened remaining exit.
  • Fixed some visual glitches when looking out towards mid from “donut” room.
  • Reduced wallbang damage through scaffolding at B site.
  • Boosted light emitted from candles/lanterns.

Inferno

  • Increased bomb explosion damage from 500 to 620.

Vertigo

  • Another attempt at fixing molly through floor bug at mid.
  • Removed a position by ramp corner.

Cache

  • Fixed an exploit. (Thanks El_Exodus!)

Vineyard

  • Performance and stability improvements
  • Ivy now sways in the wind
  • Fixed displacement vphysics issues

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Author
Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.