This DreamHack trailer might have teased a returning CSGO map

M Alzamora Published 24/11/2020

The DreamHack Masters Winter trailer is impressive, but there was something that caught the eye of many viewers on Dust 2.

The trailer for DreamHack Winter 2020 was a work of art, there’s no doubt about that. With beautiful animations to go with its soundtrack and voiceover, it’s an impressive piece of CSGO from Valve. But for all of the attention to detail given to the smallest parts of CSGO, there was a noticable change to an iconic map that appeared for less than three frames.

DreamHack trailer may hint at future of CSGO’s Danger Zone

Around halfway through the trailer, the screen goes white before sending the viewer flying through a mashup of CSGO’s maps before barging into Dust 2’s T spawn. Before it comes back into first person, the map’s Kasbah mural pops into frame just for a moment. But instead of spanning the wall, the mural is vertical, with a cutout of what looks like a similar mural on the left. An even closer look shows what seems to be another space for a mural, and this one is completely blank.

That’s where Danger Zone’s Jungle_dz comes in. Valve removed the map from the mode’s rotation with barely a word back in July. Its disappearance was was overshadowed by the game’s new Trusted Mode, but a hint what could be in store for Jungle’s future might have appeared months earlier.

Did Half-Life: Alyx predict a CSGO jungle overhaul?

In Half-Life: Alex, players meet Olga within five minutes of starting the campaign. While she seems like a throwaway character, her model, and the pins she wears, are much more interesting. She’s sporting a number of pins that may seem familiar to CSGO players.

The pin seems to have predicted the map’s removal months before it disappeared from CSGO’s Danger Zone map pool. While technically part of Operation Shattered Web, players thought that it’s long rotation time meant it was here to stay. But the pin is clearly labeled “Jungle” and identifiable by the map’s signature dock cranes, and its design also seems to indicate that the map itself would undergo some changes.

Jungle was the first community made map for Danger Zone, and despite its popularity with players, it lacked the shine and complexity of the mode’s two other maps. With Sirrocco still in-game and clearly displayed in the trailer, it’s safe to say that when CSGO’s big update comes, Sirrocco will stay. If the half-finished mural is indeed Jungle, then that means that there might be a new Danger Zone map coming to the mode. Rumors are flying about a snowy Danger Zone map on its way, and that would even explain the empty rectangle’s blue tint.

The Danger Zone experiment has opened up a new location atop an old ski resort. Amidst the abandoned cabins in the frigid cold, who will be the last man standing?

We finished our dangerzone map for @csgo – Frostbite
Subscribe to it now on the workshop: https://t.co/WNUId0kMc8 pic.twitter.com/wgrBKkVefg
— Rexer (@TR3x3r) July 16, 2020

M Alzamora

About M Alzamora

There are few things that writer M Alzamora loves more in life than Pokemon. And there are even fewer things that she loves more than her favorite Pokemon, Eevee. But M’s appreciation for gaming isn’t just limited to Nintendo’s famous pocket monsters. She’s interested in every type of game across every genre of gaming, and she has the credentials to prove it. M’s work has also been seen on Working Classicists and gaming sites.

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