CS2 Premier Season 3 has arrived and players are quick to share their thoughts

Today, Season Three of Counter-Strike 2’s Premier mode launched on Steam, or as the team seems to be jokingly referring to it, “Season Two: Episode One.” The launch of this new season was shrouded in mystery all day as players waited, both patiently and impatiently, for news about the update. Then it suddenly dropped at 5:00 PM Pacific Time on July 15th. Players were quick to share their thoughts on the changes.

Counter-Strike 2 Premier Season 3 is here, Anubis is out, Overpass is in, no Cache, and players share their thoughts

If you’re not familiar, Counter-Strike 2 is frequently the number one most played game on Steam, regularly attracting well over one million players on a daily basis, which few other games are able to do as consistently, according to SteamDB. The new season shakes up the Premier metagame by changing maps, rules, and resetting the leaderboard.

As with such a massively popular game, the takes are varied. On the same Reddit post explaining the changes introduced in the new season, one player commented: “-ANUBIS +OVERPASS… WE EATING GOOD TODAY” in all caps. Another user replied to that comment, simply stating: “I am so mad, Anubis is my favorite map…” Many users were hoping for the return of Cache, a fan favorite map from 2019 that hasn’t made its way into the active duty pool since then. But earlier this year, a Cache remake was made playable in the workshop.

In terms of gameplay, Valve has introduced three key changes. First, incendiary grenade fire will spread more rapidly, “occupying space rapidly to counter rushing Ts…” according to an update post on Steam. The MP9 gun has received a nerf, making it “harder to control spray and substantially less jumping accuracy.” Finally, an interesting new change for Counter-Terrorists in competitive modes. “Win or lose, CTs now receive a shared team award for each T eliminated in the round…” so the closer the match, the better the reward, even if you lose.

There will surely be some hiccups and issues as the new season rolls out, but for now we’ll have to see how players react. Will player counts surge? Or will enough players find these changes unenjoyable? Many players expressed concern over a new anti-scam feature, given CS2’s deep in-game item economy, this could have ripple effects. Only time will tell.

Counter-Strike 2

September 27, 2023

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• Overview

• patches and updates
• Valve
• CS / Counter-Strike (franchise)