The map de_Nuke has gone through a lot of changes over the years. The massive rework in February of 2016 and reintroduction into the active duty pool created a lot of controversy. Not only did the map itself play and feel awkward, it made some of the bugs in Counter Strike seem problematic to the gameplay. Between the sound and issues with lower end computers not being able to run the map at a solid FPS, Nuke didn’t have a great reception. In arguably one of the most balanced esports, Nuke gives a gigantic advantage to the counter terrorist side. The new Nuke is a bit better balanced, with terrorists being able to climb on top of the railings and the removal of one of the vents giving terrorists a bit more options.

The problem is… It’s still Nuke. The map went from by far the least balanced in the active duty map pool to still the least balanced map in the active duty pool. The Counter-Terrorists will get to every point of contact well before the terrorists, meaning that it is next to impossible to get a pick unless a CT player makes a big positional mistake or misses a relatively easy shot. Smoke executes simply don’t happen like they do on maps like Mirage or Overpass. The most you will see is a smoke wall into secret that you can see from heaven anyways. In every situation, a Terrorist player cannot be in an advantageous position naturally. The player relies on the other team to miss a shot. The higher the level of play goes, the less of a chance that the other team will miss that easy shot. Essentially the start of the round is up to chance; something which Counter-Strike has prided itself on reducing.

Professional matches are very frustrating to watch from an analytical perspective. Professional players do not miss easy shots. Outside control is fairly reasonable to take with the possibilities of flashing and smoking angles off, but that isn’t anywhere near a site. Outside control is something professional teams MUST take that part of the map because without it, there is literally no viable option to take a site. Unlike other maps where rushing B or A long is a viable option in certain situations. Teams will look really good or really bad because of how the map is set up. It is common in vetos that the team that did not pick the map gets to pick which side it starts, meaning that picking Nuke can get out of control really quick and also gives both teams a reason not to pick it. Nuke is also the least played map in professional play. According to HLTV, Nuke has been played around 2700 times, the next closest one is Dust 2. Which had been played up to 4200 times.

The most recent changes to Nuke was the step in the wrong direction. After removing the ability to get behind the CT side and also moving the window in hut, Terrorists ironically have less options than they ever did. The angle from hut into mini was really good for the terrorist side because they can see into mini from lobby without being exposed. Removing the catwalk was by far the biggest step back in balancing Nuke. Catwalk was an angle that punished CT’s pushing a person close to the outside boxes and had a huge risk and reward tradeoff to going there.

The professional players themselves dislike the map as well. shortly after its rework, Robin "flusha" Rönnquist said in an interview with PCgamer, “We played [Nuke] a few times and we tried to get better at it and so on, but it's such a chaotic map, you don't know how well you can actually play it. There is just too many things to hold and the timings, if you have the wrong timing you are going to die. It’s just a bad map.” The three-time major winner had some harsh words but also some thoughtful insight into this topic. He first suggests that Nuke is a hard map to improve on, which mainly stems from random and often unfavorable timings. Then Flusha criticizes the many angles that players have to hold in order to hold a bombsite which adds to the randomness of the map.

Finn "karrigan" Andersen also said in the same interview shortly after its implementation, “I don't think is ready yet. What I worry about the most is that Nuke gets updated all the time, and they are making changes all the time on the map. So if I invest time now I am concerned that there will be a big update because something happened that Valve didn't like.” Karrigan adds another perspective to the debate, which is how often it changes. From Nuke’s introduction into the active duty map pool, it has changed drastically. Adding a map to the active duty map pool only affects professional or competitive play. Meaning that it clearly harms a small percentage of their player base. In matchmaking, you can simply choose to not queue up for Nuke whereas in competitive play Nuke is in the map pool no matter what and in ESEA leagues you are playing Nuke if you like it or not.

Nuke has been the kind of map that few people like. Despite its historically low numbers in professional play and lack of any sort of love or affection by the community, Valve kept Nuke in the active duty map pool. The argument of it being a flawed map from the beginning has plenty of merit, mainly claustrophobic rooms and a closed in building not being a map that thrives in a game like Counter Strike. But with its age, you can argue that it is vital to the game historically and be correct. In 2018, Nuke should not be in the active duty map pool and Nuke should not be in competitive play.

In matchmaking, the average player is forced to rely on solid communication in order to stand a chance at winning the game (or pray that the other team is infinitely worse). So in theory, games in matchmaking are decided at the start of the game. Sound and positions can easily get mixed up and without proper assistance and re-assurance games can get out of control quite easily especially when you can’t use the minimap on anywhere near A site because it overlaps. Not only is it quite unviable in professional play, it can potentially create a situation which makes normal games impossible to win despite being “better” at the game which contradicts the entire philosophy of what makes Counter Strike the best FPS eSport.