Operation Bravo was set to end yesterday, but a last minute hand from Valve triggered another round of applause. Experts estimate the last few, embarrassed claps will now die out on Wednesday, February 5.
Bravo is the latest in a series of community support initiatives Valve have run over the past six months. With the purchase of a $5.99 ticket, players are entitled to play a set of eight popular fan-developed maps on low-ping Valve servers for the duration of the Operation. All of the maps’ authors receive a portion of the pass proceeds – and it’s having a real impact on their lives.
CS:GO players spent 2.8 million hours playing Operation Bravo’s maps across Casual, Deathmatch and Competitive Modes before the original end date of January 20 – impressing Valve sufficiently to merit another three weeks in the sun.
Buying a pass bags players an Operation Bravo coin – a decoration visible alongside your avatar which, through playtime and wins, will eventually turn from bronze, to silver, to gold. And gold coins are really all we ever wanted from games, am I right?
The Coin also acts as an operational scorecard – offering a full record of your performance across competitive Bravo matches.
Non-pass owning friends can be invited into Bravo matches at any time – but they’ll come across Bravo case drops – which include one of 15 map-themed weapon finishes – at a far slower rate.
Have any of you lot played on Bravo maps this past month? I’m told an old favourite has made its competitive debut – Seaside.