From CS:GO to CS2: how Counter-Strike moved to Source 2 in 2023

Valve announced Counter-Strike 2 on March 22, 2023, and released it on Sept. 27, 2023. In between came a Limited Test for select CS:GO players, during which Valve added maps, a new loadout system and a new rating. At launch, CS2 replaced CS:GO on Steam as a free upgrade.

The announcement on March 22, 2023

Valve introduced the game in a post titled “The Next Era of Counter-Strike.” It called Counter-Strike 2 “the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike’s history” and said the game would arrive that summer “as a free upgrade to CS:GO.”

Valve did not reveal the full feature list that day. It said all new features would be shown at the official launch, but the road to CS2 would begin “later today” with a Limited Test for select CS:GO players. During that period, Valve wrote, it would evaluate a subset of features “to shake out any issues before the worldwide release.”

The same day’s CS:GO release notes shipped the mechanism for access to the test. Selected players would see an invitation banner when they launched CS:GO. According to Wikipedia, three videos showing changes from CS:GO were also released, and the game’s move from the Source engine to Source 2 was part of the technical overhaul.

The Limited Test, spring and summer 2023

Valve used updates to add parts of CS2 to the test over time. The release notes for June 6, 2023, show how much had changed by then.

• LoadoutsPlayers got one Starting Pistol slot, four Pistol slots, five Mid-tier slots (previously “SMGs” and “Heavy”) and five Rifle slots, per team. Any side-appropriate weapon could be assigned to any slot within its category.
• Buy menuThe wheel was replaced by a grid showing all purchase options at once. Teammate purchases appeared in the menu, and players could refund any unused purchase made in the same round.
• Workshop toolsValve introduced CS2 Workshop Tools so community contributors could create weapon finishes, stickers and maps. The Steam Community Workshop did not yet support uploading CS2 maps.
• Sub-tick and smokeThe notes list sub-tick movement changes that made it “more precise and less ‘floaty’” based on player feedback, plus smoke lighting and rendering fixes.
• MapsMirage replaced Dust II on official Limited Test matchmaking servers.
• InputMulti-binds returned, except for jump-throw binds, which Valve called “now a skillful part of CS.”

Existing CS:GO items on the Steam Community Market could also be inspected in CS2. Wikipedia reports that all cosmetic items from CS:GO, including weapon skins and knives, were transferred to the new game.

Aug. 31: Premier, CS Rating and shorter matches

On Aug. 31, Valve’s update to the test brought Inferno and an updated Premier mode, which it described as its “Active Duty Pick-Ban competitive mode.” Premier introduced CS Rating, which Valve called “a visible measurement of your Counter-Strike performance.” The rating would determine a player’s place on global and regional leaderboards, and the update also added CSTV for spectating Premier matches.

Valve changed match length at the same time. It wrote that a decade of economy and weapon balance updates had reduced uncontested rounds, so competitive matches could be resolved in fewer rounds. CS2 moved to a maximum of 24 rounds in regulation, with a six-round overtime in case of a tie, for Premier, Competitive and the Majors. The release notes describe Competitive match length as 12-round halves.

Valve said on the same day that it was starting to invite “as many eligible players as possible” to the Limited Test. Eligibility required:

• CS:GO Prime status
• an active official competitive matchmaking Skill Group
• most official matchmaking games played in a region where the test was available

Wikipedia dates the opening of the test to all eligible players to Sept. 1, 2023. Valve’s own post announcing the invitations is dated Aug. 31.

Sept. 27: Counter-Strike 2 goes live

Valve’s release notes for Sept. 27 begin with two lines: CS2 “is now available and free to play,” and Season One of Premier has begun. Competitive, Wingman and Private Matchmaking were enabled. Valve added Training Day, a short introduction for brand-new players, and demo playback support.

In its launch post, “Welcome Home,” Valve told returning players they would find “your favorite maps and matchmaking modes right where you left them.” It also pointed them to a revamped Premier mode where they could establish a CS Rating. Wikipedia says CS2 replaced CS:GO on Steam, which took CS:GO down except for community servers reachable through a “legacy” branch.

What carried over

Several things from CS:GO moved across, according to Valve and Wikipedia:

• MapsWikipedia says Valve sorted its maps into three groups: layout-preserving “Touchstone” maps such as Dust II, “Upgrades” with large graphical changes such as Nuke and “Overhauls” rebuilt from the ground up such as Inferno.
• CompetitiveWikipedia describes it as a direct continuation of the CS:GO system, with ranks now set per map.
• ItemsCosmetics carried over. Valve gave CS:GO players who started playing more than a week before launch a commemorative CS:GO coin and a CS:GO Music Kit.
• Weekly rewardsThe weekly drop was replaced by a weekly Care Package, from which players choose weapon cases, weapon finishes or graffiti.

Premier, according to Wikipedia, uses a seven-map pool with a voting and banning system. It also replaced CS:GO’s 18 skill ranks with a numerical rating.

What was cut

Wikipedia lists the features that did not make the move. The Arms Race and Danger Zone modes were removed, along with several maps, including Train and Cache, and all 167 in-game achievements. It also reports that support for macOS, DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems ended, leaving CS2 available only on 64-bit Windows and Linux. Valve’s release notes mention removing “several legacy audio convars that existed in CS:GO but never had an effect in CS2.”

How players and critics responded

Wikipedia reports that CS2 received “generally favorable reviews” from critics, with a Metacritic average of 82/100 from 16 reviews. Player reception was mixed. Early criticism focused on the removed modes, the end of macOS support, the missing achievements and performance.

Thousands of negative Steam reviews were mostly buried, Wikipedia says, under the 7.5 million reviews written for CS:GO, most of them positive. Rock Paper Shotgun’s Graham Smith said CS2 reviews alone would have shown mixed feedback, equal to 59%. In October 2023, PCGamesN and Den of Geek reported that CS2 had become the lowest-rated Valve release on Steam.

What came next

After launch, Valve kept updating the game. Wikipedia says those updates added game modes, maps and Steam Workshop support, and reworked features such as animation. Community-developed maps arrived, along with revamped versions of Train and Cache. Arms Race and Retakes now appear on Wikipedia’s list of CS2’s additional modes.