Depending on who you talk to, the big news from Monday night’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive patch was either the crosshair generator or the new Panorama buy menu. But there were two other big additions that slid by in the chaos.
The surprise patch came ten days after Valve released an update that tidied up the developer’s shooter internally. While no new content was added, Valve had clearly taken the time to go through thousands of lines of code and organize it in a way that was clearer and easier to work with. It’s been clear since that patch that Valve had plans to release either more seasonal content or an improved client.
While combing through the files, WIN.gg found the following lines of code that indicate Valve will release more custom patches for the Agent models in the form of player autographs, team logos, and tournament logos.
Earlier last week, ESL released its teaser video for ESL Pro League. The video featured animated Counter-Strike models wearing team patches. Released prior to the CSGO update that added the packages, the video was most likely a teaser for what fans got a taste of yesterday and what they’ll get more of in the future. There was also another SFUI coding for player autograph sprays in the update.
SFUI commands are basically identifiers, telling the program what tooltip to show when a user hovers their mouse over an item. The patch code lists four types: Team Logo, Player Autograph, Tournament, and Decorative. While the community can assume the patches they got access to last night were of the decorative type, it’s a safe bet that more will follow soon. Â
ESL makes the most sense to tease the news as the tournament organizer will host the first major of 2020 at ESL One Rio. ESL also announced an extended partnership with 13 of the world’s top CSGO teams to ensure their participation in its Pro Tour tournament circuit for at least the next three years. For now, ESL seems to have the lead over other tournament organizers in the ongoing battle for control over CSGO’s tournament scene.
As for the models, the ones shown in the trailer look incredible. They’re clearly made outside of Counter-Strike’s current Source Engine, and there’s always the possibility that this was made in Source 2. While the Source engines are known for their awkward animations, who knows how far they’ve come since we last saw it on display.
While the tease came with the trailer for ESL Pro Leauge, it would be a major shift in Valve policy to so openly support a tournament organizer. That said, the company has been much more involved with CSGO lately. It’s possible the community sees Valve’s influence more and more as the game grows.
In December, WIN.gg reported on a possible teaser from Valve concerning Aztec and Dust, two beloved maps from Counter-Strike’s long history. Both were completely removed from CSGO, in November 2017, with Valve promising to return the maps once it had updated them.
The original report concerned a tweet in which Valve congratulated CSGO and Dota 2 for their Esports Game of the Year nominations. But instead of showing Astralis or Team Liquid to represent CSGO, Valve tweeted this:
A picture of Aztec.
Now, in the new crosshair generator, there’s a space where users can flip between different maps to see how their crosshair stands out. The tool contains four pictures: Dust 2, Mirage, Office, and Aztec.
Doubters may argue that developers wanted people to test their crosshair on a vibrant green map like Aztec. That makes sense, but why not use the most technicolor map of them all in the new de_cache? There’s little reason to use Aztec unless Valve was looking to tease its updated release once again.
No one can ever be sure about these things, but with every hint that appears it becomes less and less likely that it’s all just a coincidence.Â
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