Counter-Strike 2: Every Leak and Update

CS:GO
March 22, 2023
Daniel Morris

It seems that Counter-Strike 2 is almost upon us! It’s been years of rumors and false flags, but the update that players have been waiting for may finally be happening.

Counter-Strike 2

What Is Counter-Strike 2?

It’s currently unknown whether a potential CS2 would be a simple Source 2 port, or a full sequel to CS:GO. Rumors first began after a recent NVIDIA driver update added support for the executables “csgos2.exe” and “cs2.exe”. This was only the beginning, with more rumors emerging in the days following until official details were confirmed on March 22nd. From the blog released by Valve, it seems that the only confirmed details are gameplay upgrades to smokes, maps, tick rate, skins and sound.

On March 5th, reputable CS:GO news journalist Richard Lewis released a post discussing Counter-Strike 2. In the post, Lewis claims that an anonymous source had given him details about the upcoming title, including the huge news that it would indeed be a rebrand to Counter-Strike 2.

The specifics of Counter-Strike 2 seem to be a checklist of everything players have asked for from CS:GO over the years. Lewis claims that Counter-Strike 2 will launch with 128-tick servers, bringing the game in line with Valorant at last. As well as this, the matchmaking system will be revamped to remove unbalanced matchmaking and long times between ranking up. This is as well as the improved visuals through the transition to the Source 2 engine. It’s believed that Valve hopes these reworks will remove the need for third-party services such as FACEIT.

As usual, fans were right to take Lewis’ word as gospel. Details released in Valve’s blog confirmed significant gameplay changes. According to the blog, “tick rate no longer matters for moving, shooting, or throwing”, which is identical to direct competitor Valorant.

When Can We Play Counter-Strike 2?

Perhaps the biggest revelation from Lewis’ post that proved to be correct was that the limited test for Counter-Strike 2 has launched already. After years of silence, a drop like this is enormous for CS:GO. The game is already seeing record numbers of players every weekend at the moment. Perhaps this could see another big spike in interest coming up!

The Counter-Strike blog post confirmed that some players have already been invited to try out Counter-Strike 2. Whether or not you’ll receive an invite is dependent on your play time on official Valve servers, trust factors and Steam account standing. However, with the full release pegged for summer 2023, you won’t have to wait long to try it out.

Counter-Strike 2 in the Pro Scene

There has been plenty of noise on how the transition will affect the pro scene. If CS2 does become a full release, the original CS:GO will still be available to play, and it would be difficult to imagine the pros moving over immediately. It took a while for players to move on from CS 1.6 after the release of CS:GO, and the same could happen here. If rumors are to be believed, CS2 has already received extensive testing from professionals. Retired player gAuLeS added fuel to the fire, hinting on Twitter that he has recently visited Seattle, just a few miles away from Valve’s headquarters in Belleview, Washington.

There’s still a lot of uncertainty around Counter-Strike 2. But it seems that we won’t have long to figure out the truth, one way or another.

Steam Leaks?

Another source of Counter-Strike 2 leaks has come from mysterious goings-on behind the scenes on Steam. It was revealed on March 14th that the Source 2 update had been added to the developer pre-release branch for CS:GO. When this happens, it means that an update is forthcoming in the coming days. Exciting stuff for CS players!

This doesn’t guarantee that Source 2 will be released immediately. However, it implies that there’ll be no more updates for CS:GO until it’s finally available to players.

Later that day, multiple sources claimed that Source 2 executables had been leaked. While they weren’t playable, creator of SteamDB xpaw confirmed the legitimacy of the executables on Twitter.

The wheels are finally turning on Source 2. Stay tuned for more, in the build-up to its long-anticipated release.