CSGO updates have been coming thick and fast these last few months, and the action continued unabated with yet another massive change. Gone is the staple that is Cache, to be replaced in the active map pool by none other than Vertigo, which until this point has never featured in the competitive pool for an event.
Half of the move was expected to some extent, with the rework of Cache common knowledge, but most thought it would be another map rather than Vertigo that rose in its stead. With Cobblestone also available, it came as a surprise to see the addition of the ‘new’ map, that first appeared in the 1.1 version of the game, released March 2001.
The news was greeted with a mixed reaction, but the team it probably didn’t really upset is the world’s best, Astralis, who have played Cache less than any other map currently in tournament play according to HLTV. With their godlike record on Inferno and Nuke and the extra work they’ve put in on Dust 2, this is not the sort of update that is going to dethrone the Danes, if anything it could have the opposite effect.
There were other changes that came along with the map pool tweak, including a number of alterations to Vertigo itself and the addition of meme song EZ4ENCE to the music pack in-game after the Finns had their marvellous run at the Major. There was also a “consecutive_round_losses” value for each team added to the Game State Integration output, meaning TOs can include that to in information fans see.
Reaction from the community
As you’d expect, the world’s best team were pretty pleased with this, at least publicly, and must also feel good about the time they invested into playing Dust 2, both in practice and at the recent Blast event in Sao Paulo. Only time will tell if it actually makes them a better team, but it’s fair to say it’s not worrying any of the Danish lads.
The second-best team in the world probably weren’t as happy about this change, and NAF was quick to realise that it wasn’t going to help him and his Team Liquid colleagues close the gap per se. there was also some pretty heated debate between a few online, with FaZe coach YNK vocally critical, although that may just be a tactic to deflect from his team’s abjectly awful recent level.
He did go on to make the point that he was advocating for more conversation between Valve and the pro scene, via the Players Union, but there is no doubt both YNK and his former (colleague Moses)[https://twitter.com/OnFireMoses/status/1111419206233317376] believe there is a long way to go before the map is ready for competitive play. There was some response to that, albeit indirectly, from the always reasonable Sean Gares, and we’ll let the American have the last word in this case, as we agree. Change is always worth trying, and it’s great to see Valve making so many innovative changes over the last twelve months. Now if they’d just revert the loss bonus we’ll all be cool…
Fresh CSGO podcast
Listen to our fresh CSGO podcast for more in-depth discussion on StarSeries & i-League Season 7 with Tim Masters and Dr Waldo.
The Luckbox Podcast is an CSGO and Dota-focused podcast available on YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
