win.gg
Win.gg Counter-Strike Counter-Strike 2 will have meta-shaking smokes and a sub-tick system

Counter-Strike 2 will have meta-shaking smokes and a sub-tick system

Author Icon
William Davis Published 22/03/2023
Counter-Strike 2 smokes

Counter-Strike 2 will make major adjustments to the standard tactical gameplay, with smokes and a new sub-tick server system being the biggest change of them all.

March 22, 2023, will be one of the most important dates in Counter-Strike history. Valve has revealed a ton of details about the secret new project, including massive changes to maps and rendering. However, CSGO grinders are most likely excited about the changes to smoke grenades and the mysterious new sub-tick system.

CSGO developer Valve revealed a huge chunk of smoke changes in a dedicated video to pair with the announcement. The small group of clips shows massive changes, such as the ability for smoke to diffuse through doors and windows and even meld together. The biggest difference is that the smokes can now change after they bloom based on player actions. 

Counter-Strike 2 new smokes peek

Some clips show players shooting through smokes to create temporary holes to peek through. Others show grenades blasting them away entirely. No matter if they sit still or shift around, they also look much prettier thanks to Valve’s Source 2 rendering engine.

This opens up massive gameplay opportunities for clever players. Teams can now coordinate grenades to suddenly blast away smokes, creating new peek spots on the fly. Grenade lineups meant to cover major areas, like outside Nuke or Overpass A site, will now meld together to form perfect cover. Close-quarters areas like Mirage connector and Inferno banana can also finally be flushed out without worrying about empty corners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y9MpNcAitQ&ab_channel=Valve

Counter-Strike 2 sub-tick system will improve every aspect

Counter-Strike 2 will debut a new sub-tick server system, which should improve nearly every aspect of gameplay.

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the tick rate refers to how many times the server responds to player inputs. The standard for Valve matchmaking is 64, but most third-party servers offer 128 ticks a second. Valve’s new system, however, does away with ticks entirely, with the server reacting instantly to everything each player does.

Counter-Strike 2 subtick servers

It’s not clear exactly how this will affect gameplay, but hype videos claim it results in smoother movement and gunplay. CS2 will continue to be a game of milliseconds, so instant updates should result in more reliable performance. Players will have to wait for the limited beta test to learn exactly how it feels to play.

Switching to sub-tick could also mean relearning a ton of techniques for Counter-Strike 2. The tick rate can affect many grenade lineups, so players will need to readjust. Precise movement tricks like venthopping or strafe jumping may also be affected. Spray control is another important gameplay element affected by tick rate. It’s also not clear how the system will deal with lag, but Valve probably has a few tricks up its sleeve for optimizing the Source 2 engine.

William Davis
About William Davis

View full profile
Read Also
MLBB is the most-watched game from the EWC, and it’s hard to see another game beating it Esports Betting
MLBB is the most-watched game from the EWC, and it’s hard to see another game beating it Michael Hassall The Esports World Cup 2026 has officially passed its midway point and viewership figures for the tournament have surpassed many expectations so far, as per Esports Charts. The viewership tracking site revealed new statistics for the event on Aug. 6, showcasing just how many games had set new records in viewership, including one name leading the way in views: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. MLBB leads the viewership charts with the ...
CS2 at the EWC 2026 Preview: Odds, Details, Predictions and More Counter-Strike
CS2 at the EWC 2026 Preview: Odds, Details, Predictions and More Owen Harsono Top-tier Counter-Strike action returns at the Esports World Cup, as 32 of the best teams will take the trip to Paris to compete for millions of dollars. If you’re looking to watch the event, here’s everything you need to know and which teams to keep an eye on. The Esports World Cup is one of the largest CS2 events if we’re looking at prize pools, as $2,000,000 will be distributed ...
Opinion: Is Esports Tracing the Same Evolutionary Path As Traditional Sports? News
Opinion: Is Esports Tracing the Same Evolutionary Path As Traditional Sports? Cecilia Ciocchetti What happens when an industry compresses centuries of sporting evolution into less than a decade or two? Communities become global audiences overnight, rivalries spread through social media within minutes, and tournaments turn into entertainment products faster than ever before. And so what took traditional sports centuries to build has taken esports a fraction of that. From local communities to sold out arenas, and from informal matches to Olympic-style events, the ...
BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-final predictions: who’s making it to the grand final? Counter-Strike
BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-final predictions: who’s making it to the grand final? Owen Harsono The top four teams we’re seeing at the BLAST Bounty 2026 semi-finals are far from what anyone would expect before the tournament began, but here we are. We’re only three matches from crowning a winner, so let’s take a look at the best BLAST Bounty semi-final predictions for both upcoming matchups. Starting the semi-finals off is a banger of a series between FaZe Clan and Team Spirit, which is one ...
We Ranked The Top 5 Most Hated CS2 Maps Counter-Strike
We Ranked The Top 5 Most Hated CS2 Maps Owen Harsono If you’re a Counter-Strike player, you probably have that one map you always ban first in every Premier game — and you're not alone as almost everyone has one too. Below, we’ll take a look at the most hated maps in Counter-Strike history and explain why they are disliked by the community at large. Anubis is one of the newer releases in the Counter-Strike 2 map pool, but it has ...
The Top 10 Best Clutches in Counter-Strike History Ranked Counter-Strike
The Top 10 Best Clutches in Counter-Strike History Ranked Owen Harsono Pulling off an impossible clutch is one of the greatest hits of dopamine any Counter-Strike 2 player can ever feel. However, pulling them off at the highest level can be a little tricky since everyone is so coordinated. That’s exactly why mind-blowing clutches are remembered forever. Let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at the 10 best clutches in Counter-Strike history. We’re opening the list with former mousesports ...
Is the CS2 Esports Nations Cup Going To Be a Huge Disappointment? Counter-Strike
Is the CS2 Esports Nations Cup Going To Be a Huge Disappointment? Owen Harsono The Esports World Cup recently rolled out a new tournament series called the Esports Nations Cup, where participants can only compete under their country’s flag — just like the FIFA World Cup. 2026 is going to be the first time the Esports Nations Cup plays out, and though there was a lot of hype surrounding it, there are concerns it might fall short of expectations. The qualifiers for the CS2 ...