The most recent update to Counter-Strike 2 has seen the fan-favourite map Overpass replaced by the classic CS map, Dust II - and it hasn’t been received well by the community.
With many calling it the ‘worst map pool’ of all time after previously hoping that Mirage, Inferno, or Vertigo would be the map to be removed and that Train would be the map replacing them, let’s take a look at why people are so unhappy.
PUG maps vs tactical maps
The first reason why people are so unhappy about this change is the addition of another PUG map into the Active Duty map pool, especially seeing as it has replaced one of the more tactical maps.
If you’re unclear on what a ‘PUG map’ is, allow us to explain: a PUG map is a map that is very easy to play in PUGs, or pick up games, the games that you will typically be playing when you queue in Premier or FACEIT. This means that these maps are easier to play with fast, aggressive playstyles, and the nature of their T spawns make them suitable to rushing bombsites at the start of rounds.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, tactical maps are entirely unsuitable for playing in PUGs, but they are far better when playing in a five-stack or with an established team. The design of these maps often enforces slower playstyles, with defaults being used to find kills and force rotations to allow for advantageous bombsite executions in the late-round.
In the old map pool, Nuke and Overpass were by far the most tactical maps, while Mirage and Ancient were by far the most ‘puggy. The remaining maps served as hybrids between the two. Except for Vertigo, Vertigo is just awful.
With the removal of Overpass and the addition of Dust II, one of those more tactical maps has been removed in favour of the most famous PUG map of all. This is a problem because, at it’s core, CS is a tactical FPS, and having those non-PUG maps should be a foundation of the game.
But that isn’t the only issue with the addition of Dust II.
Map staleness
A change to the map pool has been a long time coming, mostly because many of the maps in CS2 are now considered to be ‘stale’.
Many people in the community have complaints about the staleness of Mirage seeing as it has seen minimal changes and has been in the map pool since the very first CS:GO Major, Dreamhack Winter 2013. In our opinion, this isn’t an issue. Mirage is the greatest PUG map in the pool, and is an exceptionally well designed map, which is why it has never been changed outside of the removal of the skybox. People don’t know how good they have something until it’s gone.
The bigger offenders of this issue are Inferno and Vertigo. Inferno was stale towards the end of Global Offensive and has been riding off the third map of the ELEAGUE Boston grand final ever since. Changes made to the map in CS2 exacerbated the issue, and the changes made in the most recent update will do little to alleviate them.
As for Vertigo, for our money, the map is the worst-ever addition to the Active Duty map pool. Despite being added before the StarLadder Berlin Major, Vertigo has only ever had one good map at pro level, and that was the FaZe vs Spirit match at the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 — five years after it’s addition.
That brings us to Dust II, a map that was incredibly stale when it was removed from the map pool after the IEM Rio Major 2022. Just because it has now been gone for two Major cycles doesn’t mean it will magically be a new map. It will play the exact same boring map, and the game will suffer for it.
It also brings us to another issue, do Valve really know what they’re doing?
The spawn issue
Dust II is an awful map because of its most iconic location, A Long. Its an incredibly important part of the map to hold control of for both Ts and CTs, but it’s also an incredibly hard part of the map to contest for the T side because of the nature of spawns on the map.
Entering a round and praying for Long spawns isn’t exactly a fun way to play the game, especially when you then get B spawns and are forced to attempt to rush into a site that is, despite the ‘Rush B’ memes, actually quite hard to brute force your way into.
This then forces you utilise Long spawns whenever you can, even when just one player has a Long spawn. As a result, it becomes flashbang spam and can often end in a helpless man disadvantage - not fun.
The fact that Dust II still has these randomised spawns is incredibly strange, especially when one of the most recent CS2 updates saw big changes to spawns that would seemingly seek to remove some of the random nature of spawns for both sides.
This change made a few of the maps more tactical, Mirage and Overpass both saw their gameplay changed heavily as a result. If this was a calculated change at the time, and not just a random stab in the dark at a gameplay changing update, why has Dust II not received the same treatment upon it’s reappearance into the Active Duty map pool?
All of this is to say that this is especially baffling considering the final issue with the readdition of Dust II, the current imbalance in economy within CS2.
This economy sucks
Dust II is famously a map where double-AWP CT sides have been extremely powerful. Both Mid and A Long are far easier to defend with the big green, but having a double-AWP, as well all the required utility, is quite expensive.
The current economy, especially with the impact of MR12, is incredibly punishing to the CT side. A single double-AWP round is a huge gamble now, and the impact of losing that round could destroy any hopes of a strong CT side.
You also have to contend with the power the T side has in second round forcebuys. The current economy allows them to get more rifles on their forcebuy than the CTs get after winning a round, and given the amount of long, rifle-favouring angles on Dust II, it’s very difficult to see how the current economy doesn’t favour the T side on Dust II more than any other map.
This is also without talking about the cost of utility for the CT side and the importance of early-round Incendiary Grenades on both A Long and B Tunnels.
If you can’t tell already, this means that the map will suck to play as a CT, and that’s a huge problem. Counter-Strike is at its best when the game is CT-sided. There’s more full-buys, less saving, and the tactical play that the T side then has to go through in order to gain map control from the CTs is what creates the best moments and the tighter games.
With the current economy, its very hard to see a world where Dust II won’t be a T-sided map, and that isn’t a good change considering we’re losing Overpass, one of the more CT-sided maps in the pool.
In conclusion, this change to the map pool feels like another indication of how out of touch Valve can be with Counter-Strike. We know its not their baby, that spot is held firmly by DOTA 2, but please Valve, pay attention to what your community wants and what the experts say about the balance of the game.
Dust II is a classic map, but its also a map that was better off left to the annals of history. Unfortunately though, its becoming that ex-girlfriend you always see at the bar and always end up going home with, hoping that it’ll somehow be different this time.
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