S1mple and B1t Defend CS:GO Map Mirage After HObbit Calls It 'Boring'

The most popular CS:GO map in current matchmaking, Mirage, became a subject of heavy scrutiny following Abai "HObbit" Hasenov's public outcry to remove it from the active duty map pool.

As support was growing for what the Kazakh rifler had to say about the map, NAVI's headshot machine, Valerii "b1t" Vakhovskyi, stood in support of Mirage by stating "Not agree, no need to remove Mirage."

One of the best CS:GO players in the world, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, was of a similar opinion as he praised the map while adding, "All people who think Mirage should be removed - know nothing about CS."

Debate sparks between players across the CS:GO community about Mirage

It might be possible that Mirage is the favorite map of the developers, as it is the only map that has not been dropped from the active duty map pool since CS:GO released in 2012.

Mirage has certainly undergone a few changes over the decade but nothing too drastic which would require the map to be pulled out from the rotation. This has resulted in the map often facing a lot of flak from a portion of the community that want it to be replaced with some other maps like Cobblestone, Tuscan, Cache, and even Train.

With the final version of Tuscan being released on the Steam Workshop recently, HObbit took this opportunity to speak his mind freely and suggested that this was "the best moment to remove boring Mirage."

While there was some support in regards to the above statement, it also resulted in a lot of disagreements.

Among the first to differ was b1t who straightaway said that there was absolutely no need to remove Mirage, instead he agreed to the alternative that Inferno could be removed from the map pool.

This was followed by s1mple coming forward to praise Mirage, calling it the best map for outplaying opponents, winning eco rounds, and giving teams a chance to win in a 2v5 situation, something that is nearly impossible on the 'B-Site' of Inferno.

The NAVI star was a bit harsh with his words as he said that those who think Mirage should be removed know nothing about the game. He added that Train deserved to come back because "I have no clue why they (Valve) removed this great map. great on T and CT side," pointing out that the least played map should be the one being removed.

According to this report, Ancient and Vertigo are the least played CS:GO maps in the first six months of 2022. As Ancient is the most recent addition Vertigo could be the map that s1mple was talking about.

Many other CS:GO players came forward with their own takes on the sitaution. The captain of 00 Nation, Epitácio "TACO" de Melo, completely agreed with what s1mple had to say. One half of the Bosnian duo from G2 Esports, Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač, wanted both Nuke and Overpass out of the map pool. The revival of Cache was demanded by the Swedish marksmen, William "draken" Sundin.