Over the past two weeks Abu Dhabi has been the center of the CS:GO competitive stage, where a total of eight best teams in the world fought to become BLAST Premier: World Final champions. In the end, only one team was left standing as G2 Esports defeated Team Liquid on Inferno and Mirage to secure their major trophy for the first time since 2017!
But equally important is that the World Finals was considered a great test for G2 Esports and other teams as they had to adjust to some new changes on the fly after the latest Valve’s update released on Nov. 18.
Today, we want to take a closer look at the major things that have come with this update, including several replacements in the Active Map pool, additions regarding weapons, and adjustments to the upcoming 2023 Paris Major. Without further ado, let’s get started!
Changes in Weapons
As we have said earlier, this new update barely brings three substantial changes in the video game, among which are adjustments to two of the most popular weapons in recent times: AWP and M4A1-S.
From now on, the sniper rifle will receive a smaller magazine size. If earlier it had the usual seven bullets in its size, it only has five (so make them count). As for the counter-terrorist rifle, it will start affecting the damage over long distances.
Dust II Replacement
Another adjustment from the notes of Valve’s new patch involves a change in the map pool. The latter has generated a stir on social networks with comments both for and against due to the fact that the historic Dust II leaves the map pool of the competitive mode of the famous shooter.
Instead, Anubis entered, and in this way Valve presented the seven available maps that will be part of the map pool for the upcoming 2023 Paris Major. There is no surprise that this sort of change quickly generated all kinds of comments in the community, from regular users to CSGO’s own professional players responding to the publication.
How was the First Big Event with Anubis?
Earlier this month, Anubis finally made its competitive debut at BLAST Premier: World Final. During this tournament, it appeared on up to five occasions, leaving some very interesting facts to highlight.
- The third most played map in the event, only behind Inferno andMirage.
- The most balanced scenario with 50.3% for CTs and 49.7% for Ts.
- The team that played it the most was Team Liquid with three games.
- The only squad that did not debut in the desert was Natus Vincere.
- Most of the clashes during the event took place in the B site.
Anyway, it is too early to analyze the game of each roster within the server so far, but it would be a smart idea to check out the list of https://cover.gg/matches/current games to gather more in-depth statistics.
A New Path to Majors
With this change that seems to be the last, Valve announced that there is a change in terms of RMRs invitations. Previously, squads entered the regional qualifiers through a series of open matches.
However, for the upcoming 2023 Paris Major, some teams who are not directly invited to the event will skip the open qualifier stage. Thus, teams that show consistently good performance on the CS:GO competitive stage will be directly invited to a closed qualifier. They will compete there against rosters that enter from an open qualifier.
On top of that, Valve defined the map pool for the upcoming Major of Paris. Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, Vertigo, Ancient, and a fresh Anubis make up the official map selection.
Final Thoughts
All things considered, there is no doubt that most of the professional CS:GO teams are already downloading all the new patch’s demos to analyze failures and possibilities. Surely, after the Christmas season, everyone will come back on the competitive stage with new techniques to surprise their respective rivals.
The next major event on the schedule is the 2023 IEM Katowice, a tournament in which Anubis and other changes will be implemented and better analyzed. It is also worth noting that future changes that correct errors within the maps and weapons are not ruled out, so everything can be turned upside down.
