The latest update, titled ‘The Real MVP’, dropped a couple of days ago into the game, celebrating the 25 years of Counter Strike history. From the days of CS 1.6 to the awesomeness served in CS2, there were many changes to the game, although its core gameplay has always remained the same.

The new update has added some tweaks and changes to the game, but most notably Valve added a whopping five different CS2 community maps to the official pool. This means that you’ll be able to access and play on these maps outside of custom matches.

So, what new features did Valve add to celebrate their game being a quarter of a century old? Find out with our guide!

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Five New Community Maps

Let’s get started with what everyone wanted the most out of this CS2 update, new community maps. While the CS2 Active Duty map pool is intended to facilitate balanced and well-rounded competitive matchmaking, it’s easy to get bored of the same maps over and over again, particularly if you’re a hardcore CS2 player.

To combat this issue, Valve added five different classic community maps to the official map pools in the game. These maps, and their respective game modes, are:

  • Thera and Mills were added to the casual, competitive, and death match map pool
  • Memento and Assembly were added to the CS2 Wingman map pool
  • Pool is now available in CS2 Arms Race

All of the maps released in this patch are absolute Counter Strike community classics, beloved by players for decades now. Thanks to this update, CS2 players can now enjoy games on these vintage community maps, with all the awesome Source 2 engine improvements.

Competitive Mode Changes

Although the new community maps are absolutely the main selling point of this update, it also added a number of tweaks and a couple of small, new features. One of the changes introduced in this patch is a slight modification of CS2 competitive mode skill groups.

With the new update in place, it only takes two wins per each of the map skill groups to receive your placement. This is meant to balance out the initial competitive matchmaking and make the ground more even for all players.

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In addition to this change, all competitive skill groups have been redistributed into a more even split, which will further balance the gameplay.

New MVP Panel

Last but not least, the game has added some significant changes to how the MVP feature works in the game. The new update has slightly expanded the prior MVP rules, adding a couple of new MVP conditions, which count towards your MVP status at the end of the match.

Besides the adjusted prior MVP rules, Valve also threw in a completely new animated MVP panel feature. With the new MVP panel, it’s going to be difficult to miss who’s the best player on the team.

Other Fixes

‘The Real MVP’ patch has also added a number of smaller fixes to the game. Here are the most important release notes on fixed technical issues:

  • Settings Recommendations:
    • Added a Settings Recommendation popup if your display’s refresh rate is set below its maximum at startup. Using your display’s highest refresh rate is generally recommended.
    • Added a Settings Recommendation popup if NVIDIA G-Sync support is detected but not enabled at startup. Using G-Sync is generally recommended if your system supports it.
    • Added a Settings Recommendation popup if NVIDIA G-Sync is enabled but not V-Sync and/or NVIDIA Reflex. It is generally recommended to enable all three settings together when they are available. Note that applying these settings will limit your frame rate to your display’s refresh rate or slightly lower, which is usually the smoothest-looking and lowest input latency settings combination.
  • Removed “Main Menu Background Scenery” and “Item Inspect Background Scenery” settings from the Video Settings page. These settings are still available on the Main Menu and in the Item Inspect screens respectively.
  • The “Refresh Rate” setting now shows your display’s current refresh rate in Windowed and Fullscreen Windowed modes.
  • Removed the “Laptop Power Savings” setting which has never actually been configurable in CS2.
  • Added a “Frame Pacing” section to the Advanced Video settings page.
  • Added an “NVIDIA G-Sync” row to the Frame Pacing section which tells you whether or not G-Sync is active with your current display settings. This row may be hidden if you’re using the Vulkan renderer or if you’re not using an NVIDIA graphics card.
  • Added “Maximum FPS In Game” and “Maximum FPS In Menus” sliders to the Frame Pacing section. These control the fps_max and fps_max_ui convars respectively.
  • Increased the default “Maximum FPS In Menus” setting from 120 FPS to 200 FPS.
  • The Advanced Video visual preview now uses the “In Game” maximum FPS instead of the “In Menus” maximum.
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In Conclusion

As you can see, the update has seriously expanded the general CS2 map pool. Although many players expected a new operation in this update, the maps will certainly not disappoint, so hop in and check out all of the new additions!

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