The esports phenomenon has continued to enjoy unprecedented growth in recent years, with all projections pointing to the industry being on track to break $3 billion by the end of the decade. While esports is a broad sector, full of dozens of games and thousands of players, much of its mainstream appeal can be put down to several key competitive titles. And of these, three – ‘Dota 2’, ‘League of Legends’, and ‘Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’ – are in a class of their own. In fact, major CS:GO tournaments are a popular choice for use with odds and offers on leading bookmakers; established comparison platform oddschecker cites the game’s competitive circuit as a key contributing factor in making the wider esports market the fastest growing sport by betting volume in the world today, outpacing the likes of cricket and MMA.
While a more thorough survey of the rise of esports is beyond the scope of this article, there’s no escaping the fact that Valve’s ‘Counter-Strike’ franchise has always been a vital ingredient in its mainstream emergence following the economic disruptions of the 2020s. Not only is ‘Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’, which was released back in 2012, home to the biggest teams and best players in competitive gaming, but it’s also home to the world’s largest and most valuable in-game economy. Weapon and outfit skins in the game have been known to fetch enormous after-market prices, with the most highly valued skin to date thought to be worth in excess of $1.5 million.
All of this provides ready context for why the arrival of CS2, that game’s long awaited sequel, is such a big deal. Currently in public beta, CS2 has been quietly under development for over three years, and brings a range of impressive next-generation improvements, visual upgrades and quality-of-life optimizations that the CS:GO community has long wished for. Of these, there are thought to be four major changes that are capturing headlines and energizing the fanbase. Let’s take a look at them below.
Responsive Smokes
No change has made quite as many headlines as the arrival of responsive smoke effects in CS2. To the uninitiated, this may seem like an arbitrary change from the previous game, but its impact on the way matches will be played is enormous. In CS:GO, smoke effects—such as those produced by smoke grenades, a vital strategic tool–were static, clipped through walls, did not interact with their environment, and could not be influenced.
In CS2, smoke is dynamic—it fills and wraps around the structural forms it expands into. What’s more, bullets and explosive grenades can actually displace or even clear smoke entirely. This introduces new gameplay elements, as teams will have to come up with new tactics when planting or defusing bombs.
Sub-Tick Rate Servers
The tick-rate of a server measures how often the global game-state is updated. A low tick-rate can result in missed headshots, and outdated information reaching players’ local computers. CS:GO has been increasingly criticized for having a poor tick-rate when compared with more modern games like VALORANT, and it is hoped Valve’s new sub-tick rate system, which seeks to improve in-game latency, will go some way to bringing CS2 up to current competitive standards.
Robust Anti-Hacking Features
Hackers are commonplace in esports—as such, it’s on the developers to create anti-bypass protocols capable of rooting out users suspected of foul-play. Valve has gone to some lengths to demonstrate how much more robust anti-bypass detection is in CS2. To this extent, if a hacker is detected in-game, the game will automatically end, thus depriving the hacking side of any advantage they could hope to gain from breaking the rules.
Map Reworks
CS2 enjoys a large visual overhaul from its predecessor—the game is brighter, crisper, and more detailed. To this end, maps have been rebuilt and updated in CS2’s new engine and look better than ever before. Changes to maps have been presented in three tiers that we know of—these are called Touchstone, Upgrade and Overhaul. Touchstone maps are near-identical ports of classic maps into the new engine, Upgrade maps enjoy further visual enhancements including dynamic water and lighting effects, and Overhaul maps are rebuilt from the ground up with new design elements throughout.
