Ever since 2015, Valve has been reworking the CS:GO map pool. It started with Train then Nuke, followed by Inferno and most recently Dust2.

However, the latest addition to the pool of maps still hasn’t been introduced to the pro scene. And this has been prejudicing teams more than expected.

But why is that?

Let’s analyze which teams are worst off from this delay and who will enjoy the change and which map will replace D2 when it makes a come back.

A Brief History about Dust2 on the Pro Scene

Dust2 is arguably the most iconic map in Counter-Strike history. Always going under slightly changes in each version of the game, CS:GO version gathered the best of the 1.6 and Source while maintaining the overall layout and feel. Fun fact: the first match with professional players was played on it.

The map had some trends. In CS:GO early years, it was the favorite map for teams that focused on raw skill power. However, in late 2014 the map was heavily favorite to the CT side. In the end, the best teams always adapted to it to balance things out.

Basically, it wasn’t Valve making changes to it. Instead, the community and professional scene themselves adapting each time a new strategy was developed there.

During its last months the map pool wasn’t deemed favourable by any team anymore. Other than mousesports who really replied on it to win matches, teams left it more as a last resource map.

The main reason for this was there were no more tactical development to do. Dust2 reached a point were all that mattered was which team could perform the better skill wise. And this wasn’t the meta most teams wanted to follow.

Which teams performed better with Dust2?

In 2015, the map was at its peak and Fnatic had a dominance over Dust2. Not far behind was EnVyUs, Natus Vincere and Team SoloMid. They relied a great deal on their awpers to maintain a highest level.

It was amazing to watch a matchup between these teams. GuardiaN versus Dev1ce, apEX versus Flusha and other encounters always made it an exciting watch.

However, top teams refrain from picking it as it would be the decider map in a B03. You never knew if players like ‘flusha’ and ‘dev1ce’ would have a godly performance or a shyer showing on it.

In its last days things changed. SK Gaming was never a fan of D2 and as the Brazilians climbed up the world rankings the map was getting left behind.

On February 3rd of 2017, Valve removed it from the Active Duty. Soon enough it was also removed from professional play. The last time we saw it played professionally on an offline event was during ELEAGUE Major Atlanta, in the quarterfinals stage.

The change was received with mixed feelings from players. RUSH and PashaBiceps were quite happy with the change, others like ptr and apEX, not so much.

Dust2 rework has been added in CS:GO for some months now, but it still the same map we know

Valve discontinued Dust2 to rework the map. In October of last year, the new version of the map was added for players to test out.

New visuals, a couple of new smokes and flashes to try but there was a problem. When Dust2 was removed a lot of players thought that Valve would work on its layout and they didn’t. It was the same D2 just with a visual makeover.

It’s the same design that we had since Counter-Strike 1.6. Nowadays, it is considered ‘overplayed’ which secures Inferno as the most explosive map for now.

But that doesn’t matter, teams are waiting for it to get added in the professional map pool. This should happen way before the next Major but there isn’t a set date and this lack of information is doing some damage.

Delaying Dust2 come back into the active map pool isn’t doing any good

Teams can have one map which they will always ban in the map picking process. This means that they aren’t obligated to learn all seven maps in the Active Duty.

For instances, Cloud9 and SK Gaming will always ban Nuke. Astralis and FaZe will always ban Cobblestone. Na’Vi and Team Liquid will always remove Cache and etc.

Teams tend to change which map they will ban every once in a while. Usually when a roster change takes place or when the team enter in a slump. And this is exactly what happened as we had big changes last month.

Who’s getting affected by the Dust2 delay?

SK with ‘boltz’ is a clear example of this. The team cannot consistently perform in Inferno, but their permaban is Nuke. However, as we will see below, Nuke can be removed from the active map pool in favor of the new map.

If SK starts training on Nuke with the possibility of Dust2 replaces it in a few weeks, the team would have wasted time.

North is the same. Other than Inferno, Overpass and Mirage the team isn’t sure of which maps to play. Should they start to train Cobblestone only to see it removed later?

OpTic Gaming is worth a mention here too. The newly formed team must build their map pool as fast as they can. However, not knowing which map they should focus on and which they can let as their permanent ban makes them quite volatile for now.

This is caused by the lack of communication by Valve.

We could have the map pool expanded to nine maps with Dust2 and Canals being added on it. Or maybe two maps are going to be replaced. Who, other than CSGO developers, knows?

The most probable maps to be removed

When Dust2 enters the active map pool, one map will be getting removed from it.

Previously, we would consider that the most probable maps are those which Valve still have to rework. Valve added the new Train in place of Nuke. When it’s remake was done, the new Nuke was added and it was time for Inferno to be revamped.

We’re talking about maps that were directly ported from CS:Source. These were Train, Inferno and Nuke which now are completely reworked. So, what are the options for Dust2?

Mirage is the oldest map without a rework

We have Mirage as the oldest map without a full rework in the pool. Mirage is a classic map, created by a fan for CPL Tournaments back in the first edition of Counter-Strike.

Valve then introduced it to CSGO and it was the first map that Valve worked on to bring it to the new standards they wanted for Global Offensive.

Mirage is essential in CS:GO map pool. Currently, there isn’t a team in the premier level that has it as a permaban. NiP was the only team who usually bans it.

While not shocking, we would expect negative feedback from players if Valve removed it completely.

Cobblestone is the most unbalanced map currently

Cobblestone was added in 2014. Since then, the map has been going under heavy changes. However, as its layout really favors one side or other, Valve still have to find a way to fix it.

During ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018, we saw that Cobble was the most unbalanced map in the tournament. Take a look to see how much of an advantage the Terrorist side has:

For a lot of professional players would be more than happy to wave goodbye to Cobble. Valve have received numerous request to remove it from the active duty. With D2 is the expected to make a comeback and Cobble the most quoted map to get removed, we should expect mostly positive feedback.

Nuke is the least played map in most tournaments

Nuke was added in 2016. The map had a fair few technical issues. Plus, the new additions were not well received and generally both casual and pro players avoided it.

After a couple of changes, it was added back in the Active Duty. Consequently, also in the professional tournaments. SK Gaming and Cloud9 gave it a shot but it didn’t work and put it as their permanent banned map.

The map is still getting constant updates but it has yet to fall off the community. Teams like Liquid, G2 and North were decent on it but had better maps to focus on, FaZe and Astralis barely played it and most of time it was just banned during the map picks.

Nuke also isn’t known for its balance. The original CS:GO Nuke version was extremely CT-sided, the new one is the contrary. At ELEAGUE Boston 2018, Nuke was the second most unbalanced map only behind Cobble.

However, its removal is improbable. This Nuke version is relatively new. Valve released a patch last month which revealed some big changes on it. While we still have to see more teams playing on it, we are certain that Valve wants to give it a chance before completely abandoning it.

Cache is the only map that wasn’t made by Valve nor maintained by them

Cache was created by ‘VOLCANO’ and originally released for CS:Source one year before the release of Global Offensive. The creator then ported the map for the new game. It was with a redesign from FMPONE that the map successed.

FMPONE joined Volcano and released an updated version for the community, that loved it. Valve then added the map temporarily in the game in January of 2014. It made permanent come back in July of that year.

Cache was a map that almost every team could play, but not dominate. Right now, there isn’t a team among the best in the world that has it as their favorite map.

The possible reason for its removal is not that it isn’t played or that it’s extremely unbalanced. Instead, is that it isn’t up to Valve to work on it.

Currently, who updates and works on it is FMPONE. He keeps releasing updates and fixes for it every once in a while.

Valve probably don’t have anything against the creator nor it’s current developer. However, having a map pool where they have full control would be ideal for them.

Who will get the best of Dust2 when it’s added?

Now we know which maps have the highest chance of being removed – Cobblestone and Mirage making the top of the list. Which teams will get the most out of D2 from the start?

FaZe Clan : Dust2 was Guardian playground back in 2015. In 2016 it was time to NiKo wrote his name in the map. Olofmeister and Karrygan also lived D2 peak in 2015 and know very well how to play it. Basically, FaZe should establish a dominant position on it from the first day.

G2 : apEX is a monster on Dust2. If KennyS can bring his top performances that we often see in Inferno to D2, G2 will be a threat on it.

Natus Vincere : flamie and s1mple in Dust2 are two players you won’t like to play against. The CIS giants have so much fire that fit so well with the map that is worrying for any opponent. If we see Cobblestone or Cache going out, it will be everything NaVi could wish from Valve.

OpTic : While still early, we already saw how strong is the raw skill of the new OpTic line-up. Gade mechanic skill is just astonishing and the map rewards players like him a lot. k0nfig is also a very aggressive player who will most of times get rewarded.

Mousesports : Oskar has been amazing in this version of mouz. Dust2 will be certainly a map to watch him as he can be aggressive as he wants.

Who will get the worst side of the deal?

Dust2 come back won’t be good news for everyone. Some teams, especially those who rely on the tactical side will probably avoid it against the teams mentioned above.

North : currently, MSL doesn’t have a lot of raw strength in his team. Unless Dust2 come to replace Cache, it won’t be helping him in his task to get stronger. Since even the tactical side of North is lacking right now, it would be another map to the Danish team get exploited.

Gambit : same problem happens with Gambit, not having enough firepower will make them avoid D2 at any cost. Cobblestone being a possible removal makes things even worse.

Astralis : gla1ve’s roster has the amount of raw skill needed especially when dev1ce performs. However, the team right now have a way more tactical game plan. The problem is not even this. The map where they have the higher win rate is Mirage, who is, again, one of the favorites to get removed. Astralis certainly will be a dangerous team on Dust2 but when it comes to play against teams like FaZe, they would prefer to ban the map or avoid it at all costs.

Virtus.Pro : The Poles making to this side of the list aren’t surprising. Basically, Dust2 leaving the map pool in 2017 was everything they wanted and still they failed to used it for their advantage. With the map coming back, it’s another map to avoid for them.

When we should expect it to be played in tournaments?

Train entered in the active map pool in March of 2015, Nuke in April of 2016, and Inferno in February of 2017. If we can do any prediction using this, Dust2 is in its way sooner than we expect, maybe soon as next week.

If Dust2 don’t get added until mid-April, we should expect the next big offline tournament, Dreamhack Masters Marseille to be the last LAN without the map being played.

So, are you waiting for D2 to get back in the map pool? Which map should be removed? Tell us!