With the recent release of Counter-Strike 2, changes have been made to the game to bring a breath of fresh air that hardcore players are sure to enjoy, and new players will find it easy to get the hang of. The Premier ranked mode as well as the original Competitive mode have both received changes in CS2.

What’s New In Both Modes?

The Maximum Round Limit Has Been Shortened

Several new features have been brought to CS2 that have carried over to both game modes. First, all games are now MR12 instead of MR15 (first to thirteen wins instead of sixteen), vastly shortening the length of games.

However, to make up for the shortened matches, instead of games resulting in a tie, a six-round overtime will be introduced instead of matched automatically resulting in a tie. This allows for more matches to be played when you are trying to grind out ranked, as well as a shorter time commitment if you just want to play one or two quick matches.

Changes To The Buy Menu

The Buy-Wheel in CS2 has been removed from the game, and a more straightforward buy menu has replaced it, making those accidental purchases less frequent. Even in the case where you may buy the wrong thing, you can now undo purchases with a right click on the weapon or utility, or by clicking the little arrow in the bottom corner of the item’s picture.

Furthermore, you can only purchase a limited amount of guns from each section of the buy menu now, instead of having access to all of the weapons in your shop.

However, to make up for this you can now customize your shop before you launch a match, picking which guns you want to see in each of your matches, you can even now have both the M4A4 and M4A1-S as options for your Counter-Terrorist shop!

Matchmaking and Map Selection in CS2

Competitive Now Distributes a Rank For Each Map Individually

While you can still select which maps you want to play in the Competitive mode, there is one big change. You now go through the traditional placement matches for each map. This new change helps players who might have one map down to a science and want to try out another map. Now they can avoid being placed against players who are extremely experienced on the map they are trying.

For some, this might not be a big deal, especially if you only enjoy playing with the same couple of maps in the first place. However, if you find this change a bit frustrating, then you may want to turn to the Premier ranked mode instead.

Premier Is More of a Draft and Eliminate Scrimmage Map Selection

The Premier game mode is one that many players enjoy and turn to due to the specific map ranks that the standard Competitive game mode has adopted. Premier is almost like a scrimmage game mode the way that it works. For starters, when you get into a Premier match you will be given the option to vote on maps you do not want to play on. This voting process goes back and forth until one map is decided on. Now those who start the voting process get more maps to remove than the other team. To make up for this, the team with fewer votes gets to make the final decision on what map will be selected. Then, the other team chooses which side they get to start the game on (Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist). Overall, this voting system is a very strategic yet balanced way to decide on the map that will be played on.

CS2 Ranking Systems

Competitive

Other than receiving a rank per map, the actual ranks of standard Competitive have remained the same, the lowest being Silver 1 and the highest being Global Elite. This is nice for returning players, allowing them to jump back into a ranked system they are familiar with, and easy for new players since the ranks are relatively easy to understand, and see which rank fits in with which ELO.

The lowest division in CS2 is still Silver starting from Silver I and ending at Silver Master Elite. Afterward is Gold Nova, which similarly starts at Gold Nova 1 and ends with Gold Nova Master. Master Guardian is the next Division up and it only has three ranks: Master Guardian I, II, and Elite. After this the ranks get a bit unique, Distinguished Master Guardian is the next rank, and after that, there is Legendary Eagle and Legendary Eagle Master. Finally, the last two ranks are Supreme Master First Class and of course the highest rank in CS2, Global Elite.

Premier

Now the actual ranked system for Premier is very different from the traditional Competitive game mode. Instead of being given a rank like Silver 1, Silver 2, etc. you are given an ELO rating depending on your skill level. This rating is all-encompassing, meaning you don’t get a specific rating depending on the map, and it goes up and down depending on your performance.

Each ELO rating is given a color, that color corresponds with the rarities of skins and cosmetics in the game. So, one way of thinking about it is the higher your rating, the higher the “rarity”. Overall, Premier is a small step above the regular Competitive mode that gives players who are more serious about their rating an option to display their skills on the leaderboards.

Conclusion

The new changes to the ranked game modes in CS2 are a nice addition to the game. Depending on the player it gives them an option to enjoy the competitive nature of a ranked game the way they might like it. Whether you are a Dust II master in the standard Competitive mode or are climbing the ladder of Premier, there is an option for any kind of player to enjoy CS2's ranked gameplay.