Cover Image Courtesy: Valve | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: CS:GO
While the community is busy focussing on problems associated with the new character models released by Valve, the negative impact crowd involvement is having on counter-strike and tournaments like BPS: Global Finals along with cs_summit 5, Valve has tried to slip a few clues likely pointing towards the return of Aztec and Dust.
No matter how sneaky the developers try to be, the community is always vigilant to sniff out every bit of dirt that comes their way. Since the start of December, both Valve and CS:GO through their official Twitter accounts has dropped clues via their tweets, which includes a screenshot of the classic CS maps Aztec and Dust.
On 6th December CS:GO released an update which enabled players to draw on the in-game map while playing a match. While replying to James Bardolph on Twitter regarding the same, the reply sent from CS:GO’s Twitter account was a screenshot of the map of Dust, upon which ‘Hello James’ had been written.
Image Credit: CS:GO
This was quickly noticed by multiple users and might be a tease by the developers about the upcoming map.
While users were still excited about that discovery, Valve on 13th December posted a tweet congratulating both CS:GO and Dota 2 for being nominated under the category of ‘Esports Game of the Year’ by The Game Awards, and for The International to be nominated for ‘Esports Event of the Year’.
There was nothing special about the Tweet, but users were quick to notice the image attached to it. The image which is divided into three sections had a screenshot of Aztec in the first section, a photo of Templar Assasin in the second section, and OG winning the TI in the last section.
Image Credit: Valve
While the usage of Aztec might in itself be a big clue, it was the second section that was the major hint behind the return of the beloved map. Templar Assasin is one of the playable characters in Dota 2, whose lore revolves around her possessing a ‘curious inquiry’ which led her to unlock a secret door that exists in nature itself: the entryway to the most Hidden Temple.
Her lore according to Dota 2 Wiki reads that,
“Her investigations led her into far more obscure corners. As she devoted her furtive talents to unlocking the secrets of the universe, she instead unlocked a secret door that exists in nature itself: the entryway to the most Hidden Temple.”
This ‘Hidden Temple’ could be a reference to Aztec, which is also a map built around the ruins of an ancient temple. While this was all that users could interpret from the attachment shared, why not take this discussion one step above?
With the first CS:GO Major taking place in Rio de Janeiro next year, which is located in Brazil, in South America. A land surrounded by the mysteries of the Aztecs and the Mayans, who were known for building a lot of temples and other structures, that have long been lost. This could probably mean that Valve plans to unveil the map sometime in between or during the Major.
While this was a stretch, the best thing a gaming community likes is to join the dots whether they are there or not, and predict what might be headed their way.
