Counter-Strike 2 has replaced CSGO, but some three months after its initial launch, it’s unclear whether the new Valve FPS game fully improves on its predecessor. The maps have been reworked. Smoke grenades herald entirely new dynamics. Everything looks great in Source 2. But a few significant issues remain, and whether you’re an occasional or hardcore CS2 player, it may feel like Valve – no pun intended – pulled the trigger here a little too early.
Speaking exclusively to PCGamesN at the Dreamhack ESL Challenger event in Sweden, a variety of professional Counter-Strike 2 players, including Ali ‘hAdji’ Haïnouss of 3DMax and Viktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev from Monte, explain how the launch of CS2 may have come prematurely. The FPS game may still have some rough contours, and require some close tweaking and improvements, but despite reservations about the initial launch, Counter-Strike 2 pro players say they are confident in Valve’s continued post-release work.
“I think it’s never the right time,” 3DMax player hAdji says. “Obviously, I saw some people saying that. Yeah, maybe they need to work more on it before releasing it. But it’s never the right time.”
“If you ask me as a professional player, day by day it’s getting better and better, in every aspect,” sdy explains. “But if you ask me as just a person who plays games, it was not the game that should have gone out at the time it was released.”
Since launch, Valve has made a variety of changes to Counter-Strike 2, fixing issues that include being shot through walls, problems with mouse speed, and, most recently, an exploit that potentially allowed malicious users to obtain the IP addresses of other players. Given that CSGO launched all the way back in 2012, it’s likely that Counter-Strike will have a similarly long lifespan, and that Valve is only just getting started with improvements and close tweaks. The pros agree that the game is moving in the right direction.
“I think they’re doing good so far, listening to the feedback of the community,” hAdji says. “I think it can only be better from now on. You just need to be positive about the changes. I know some players from FaZe talked with Valve. I think it’s really important that we still have the best pro players who can give their insight.
“It’s kind of weird to me that people complain,” sdy concludes. “Better players don’t complain. They find a way and they train. If you think the economy is bad, you can find other ways to build your economy. Valve is working on it.”
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