• Inferno
  
  
  
  • Various bug fixes and tweaks
    

• Players who survive the last round before overtime no longer carry their items into overtime
  
• Disabled Casual matchmaking temporarily to avoid a bug where servers get stuck in the end-of-match state
  

• Fixes for missing music in Casual mode
  

• Various bug fixes and tweaks to Premier UI elements
  
• Various bug fixes and tweaks to weapon finishes
  
• Fixed a crash that occurs when changing audio devices
  
• Fixed an issue where players who abandon during Premier map voting receive multiple cooldowns
  

• Added Premier mode
  
• Added a visible CS Rating and CS2 Leaderboards. For more information visit the CS2 Leaderboard FAQ
  
• Added CSTV for spectating Premier matches
  

• Fixed a case where grenade throw sounds would play twice
  
• Added music preview button to music volume sliders
  
• Various adjustments to sound effects
  

• Added Paint Kit enhancements to CS2 Item Editor. Paint Kit finishes can now support:
  
  
  
  • Enabling custom normal maps and AO for all styles
    
  • Optional pearlescent mask
    
  • Optional standard PBR roughness texture
    
  • Custom Paint-By-Numbers masks (enabling Paint-By-Number masks for Spray-Paint style)
    

• Added Inferno to all available game modes
  
• Various bug fixes and tweaks for all shipped maps
  

• Fixed a bug with hostage rescue prediction
  
• Enabled first-person shadow for carried hostages
  
• Fixed water effects showing in the wrong place when a bullet hit the water after penetration
  
• Various fixes for weapon finishes
  
• Replaced "Secondary Fire Hold" setting with "Zoom Button Hold"
  
• Fixed "Disable all voice comms" button in scoreboard
  
• "Temporarily Disable Incoming Chat" now mutes voice chat
  
• Various CS:GO settings will be imported when launching the CS2 Limited Test
  
• Fixed a case of inconsistent crouching with Duck Mode: Toggle enabled
  
• Updated the invulnerability visual effect
  
• Adjusted 'sv_infinite_ammo 2' grenade behavior to match CS:GO
  
• Desert Eagle third-person muzzle flash smoke now dissipates faster
  
• Continued iterating on smoke shape
  
• Adjusted Competitive mode match length to 12-round halves
  

• Recent ranked matches in "Your Matches" menu will now show Competitive, Wingman, and Premier matches
  

• Access to match history granted to third-party websites will now cover Competitive, Wingman, and Premier matches
  
• GetNextMatchSharingCode API used by third-party websites must now supply a match sharing code that is no more than 1 month old to obtain the next match sharing code.
  

Today we’re updating the CS2 Limited Test with a new map (Inferno!) and the all new CS Rating.

Your CS Rating is a visible measurement of your Counter-Strike performance, and it will determine where you stand on global and regional leaderboards. To get your CS Rating, play matches in the updated Premier mode (our Active Duty Pick-Ban competitive mode) either on your own or with your friends.



Additionally, today we’re starting the process of inviting as many eligible players as possible to the Limited Test. To be eligible for a CS2 Limited Test invite players must have CS:GO Prime status, an active official competitive matchmaking Skill Group, and play majority of their official matchmaking games in one of the regions where the Limited Test is available.

Saving Time
Over the past decade, we’ve shipped updates to the economy and weapon balance to trim the fat and reduce the number of uncontested rounds in a match of CS.

Because of these changes, exciting competitive matches can be resolved with fewer rounds. And shorter matches mean players can play more, and more often. So with CS2, we’re moving to a maximum of 24 rounds in regulation time (with a 6 round overtime in case of a tie) for Premier, Competitive, and the Majors.

We expect the structure and flow of matches to evolve over time as the community adapts. And we’re excited to see where they go next.

• Fixed bullet penetration through players
  

• Audio mix tweaks and adjustments
  

• All maps previously shipped in the Limited Test are available in casual and deathmatch matchmaking
  
• All maps and game modes previously shipped in the Limited Test are available for offline play
  

• Dropped bombs no longer sink in water
  
• Reworked the bullet penetration system
  
• Enabled bot takeover where applicable
  

• Italy
  
  
  
  • Various bug fixes and tweaks
    

• Added more hostage variants
  

• Competitive and Private Matchmaking are currently disabled in the Limited Test
  
• Minor adjustments to smoke cloud shape
  

• Added Italy to Deathmatch and Casual game modes
  
• Removed Anubis and Ancient
  

• Unified StatTrak position on both CS2 M4 models to not occlude stickers
  
• Adjusted sticker sizes on CS2 M4A4 so they no longer overlap
  

• Updated hostage models
  

• Audio mix tweaks and adjustments
  

• Added support for multiple team introduction variants
  

• Anubis
  
  
  
  • Removed from Competitive mode
    
  • Various bug fixes and tweaks
    
  
  
• Ancient
  
  
  
  • Added to Competitive mode
    
  • Various adjustments to lighting
    
  • Added missing collision detection to some debris
    

• Various adjustments to C4 animation
  
• Water rendering performance improvements
  

• Anubis
  
  
  
  • Improved movement clipping map-wide
    
  • Adjustments to collision around pillars
    
  • Plugged holes in world geometry
    
  • Fixed issues with weapon and bomb clipping through world geometry
    
  
  
• Ancient
  
  
  
  • Improved water clarity at T spawn
    
  • Adjustments to jumpable locations
    
  • Adjustments to collision around corners
    
  • Various adjustments to lighting
    

• Fixed an issue with round restart in the middle of weapon reloading
  
• Fixed a case where incendiary grenades fail to detonate in water
  
• Ragdoll limbs splash when they hit water
  

Counter-Strike is at its best when teams compete on a level playing field and when ability is the only limit to their success.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen professional Counter-Strike drift away from that ideal. The ecosystem has become gradually less open, with access to the highest levels of competition increasingly gated by business relationships.

We think that Counter-Strike should be an open sport. So we’re going to add new requirements to running large-scale competitive events. The finer details are still in progress, but here are the broad strokes:

• Tournament organizers will no longer have unique business relationships or other conflicts of interest with teams that participate in their events.
  
  
• Invitations to all tournaments will use our ranking system (detailed here), or otherwise be determined by open qualifiers.
  
  
• Any compensation for participating teams—prize pool or otherwise—will be made public and will be driven by objective criteria that can be inspected by the community.
  

Since tournament organizers have existing long term commitments, these requirements will take effect as of 2025. There will be some rough edges to the transition, but we’re committed to the long-term health of Counter-Strike as a sport and are looking forward to its bright and open future.