Counter-Strike 2 Receives Major Update With Premier Mode, Inferno and More

Counter-Strike 2’s Limited Test client received a massive patch last night (31st August) and it added various features from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) to the title. Premier Mode has made its way from CS:GO to Counter-Strike 2 (CS2). If you were expecting an open beta this patch, we are sorry to disappoint you. There is no open beta in sight and we don’t know when all players will get access to the game. 

More players are being added to the Limited Test so make sure you have CS:GO Prime Status, are in a Competitive Skill Group and have played most of your matches in one of the regions where the game’s Limited Test is available. While it’s not a true open beta, meeting these conditions will  likely get you access to Counter-Strike 2 with the latest update as long as you don’t have prior Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) bans.

Counter-Strike 2 31st August patch notes

Premier Mode

CS2 will introduce Premier Matchmaking. This features a pick-ban system of all the current active duty maps. The outcome of your matches will drive a new precise rating, which is based on points rather than on a ranking symbol. This points rating will give you the chance to climb seasonal leaderboards and will allow you to compare your points against your friends, region, and the entire world.

Map-Specific Ranks

Players who don’t feel ready for Premier (which can always serve you a map that you aren’t familiar with) can still play regular competitive and pick which map they want to play on. The kicker here is that you now have a map-specific rank, so it’s entirely possible that you’re Silver 4 on Inferno and Global Elite on Vertigo, for example.

Shorter Matches

Competitive, Premier, and Pro CS2 matches will now last for a maximum of 24 rounds, with a 6 round maximum overtime enabled in case of a tie. This means that the first team to reach 13 rounds wins the match. This will undoubtedly shake the meta up quite a bit, so we might see some drastic balancing changes coming in the next couple of months.

PREMIER

• Added Premier mode

• Added a visible CS Rating and CS2 Leaderboards. 

• Added CSTV for spectating Premier matches

SOUND

• Fixed a case where grenade throw sounds would play twice

• Added music preview button to music volume sliders

• Various adjustments to sound effects

WORKSHOP TOOLS

• 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)

MAPS

• Added Inferno to all available game modes

• Various bug fixes and tweaks for all shipped maps

MISC

• 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

CS:GO

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

GAME AUTHENTICATION CODES

• 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.