Something big is brewing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and four of the most popular maps in the game are at the center of it.
On September 19, Valve added compatibility versions of eight maps to the official CSGO Workshop page. Compatibility versions of maps are made publicly available to ensure older replays work in the current CSGO client after changes are made to maps.
While the likes of Mocha, Pitstop, and Grind were included, they weren’t alone. Compatibility versions of Cache, Dust 2, Ancient, and Inferno were all added to the page suggesting that changes are set to come to the maps.
Compatibility versions of maps are uploaded to the page frequently, but most of these maps are short-lived community maps or newly released maps that get repeatedly changed. A wave of compatibility version maps being added to the CSGO Workshop came ahead of Operation Broken Fang in December 2020, but there are many possible explanations.
Possible Dust 2, Inferno, and Ancient changes incoming
It’s unclear what sort of changes might be coming to these maps and they could be anything from hotfixes to textures, pixel gaps, and collision detection to more substantial changes to things like. Valve is willing to make changes to popular maps, which was seen when the B-site doors of Dust 2 were changed last year.
Still, seeing four ranked matchmaking maps, including three active duty maps, and several others set to be changed at the same time is unusual. There are many possible explanations for why this is happening.
The most obvious relates to teases related to some sort of surf map event, possibly a new CSGO operation. There have been multiple teases that something is in the works, and official surf maps may fill the same spot that retake maps did during Operation Broken Fang.
Another possibility is that some other sort of event is coming. The Dreams and Nightmare skin competition has been going on and while it’s been attached to a new case there could be other wrinkles to it as well.
It’s still possible that this is a relatively straightforward update coming and that a handful of smaller changes are coming and that’s all a coincidence. Still, there’s enough smoke when it comes to CSGO to buy the idea that there’s a fire.
