The M4A1-S is officially OP in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, at least according to some top-level professional players.
In a recent long-form interview, ENCE in-game leader Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer claimed that the M4A1-S is now blatantly overpowered in CSGO. Snappi says that the low time-to-kill and high accuracy make it a direct upgrade compared to the M4A4. He also claims that the other gameplay changes added in Riptide have rewritten the meta of professional CSGO. Based on stats from recent tournaments, the cheaper CT rifle has become massively more popular than the M4A4 alternative.
On March 4, 2022, Snappi made a guest appearance on the It’s Server Time CSGO podcast. The episode was all about the state of the CSGO meta after the Riptide balance patch. As a seasoned IGL with more than $200,000 in personal winnings to his name, Snappi is the perfect player to speak with on the subject. When asked about the silenced CT rifle, the Danish captain remarked that it could be the most overpowered rifle in CSGO history.
“The (M4A1-S) is more OP than the AUG was, and I don’t even think that’s a question at this point… They made it so that four bullets will kill no matter the distance. Not only that, the rate of fire is slow so the recoil is super easy to control. Also, there are no tracers through smokes which makes it impossible to spam back,” Snappi said. “So, the M4A1-S is way more overpowered than the AUG ever was in my opinion.”
Snappi claims that the easiest way to fix the issue is to simply revert the changes back to how they were before Riptide. He claims that some players were already using the M4A1-S due to the $2,900 price tag before its latest buffs. If the body damage was reverted and the price dropped to $2,800, Snappi predicts that the rifles would be more evenly used by pro players.
Snappi’s opinion isn’t just based on personal frustrations or biases. Looking at stats from recent tournaments, it’s easy to see that the M4A1-S is overpowered compared to the M4A4.
At IEM Katowice, the M4A1-S was used for 24.18% of all kills. For comparison, the AK-47 was used for 24.17% of total frags. Meanwhile, the M4A4 was so underutilized that it doesn’t even show up on HLTV’s top weapons pie graph. The combined field of IEM Katowice earned more kills with the Glock than the unsilenced M4.
Aside from Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken of FaZe Clan, almost no players even used the M4A4 on CT side throughout IEM Katowice. This massive swing is due to the balance changes made during Operation Riptide. The silenced rifle now has a much shorter time-to-kill at all ranges and is made even deadlier by its pinpoint accuracy. All of that comes with a low price tag, though the AK-47 is still the preferred rifle for players on either side of the game. Now it’s up to Valve to adjust the OP M4A1-S to bring it more in line with other competing rifles.
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