Valve needs to change the Active Duty Map Pool, and How they can do it
Before the end of the last season Valve changed the active duty map pool in competitive play for the first time since Counter-Strike 2’s release. They removed Overpass replacing it with Dust II which was removed after the IEM Rio Major in 2022 in favor of the new map added Anubis.
The new active-duty map pool consists of Mirage, Nuke, Inferno, Dust II, Ancient, Vertigo and Anubis. The change was made to freshen up the competitive scene which had been getting stale with most series consisting of Mirage, Overpass and usually a third map being Nuke, Ancient or Vertigo.
However, this has not changed the issue of best-of-three series consisting of the same maps with Inferno and especially Mirage being picked in nearly every series played. Vertigo has fallen out of favor for a large majority of teams after Valve reworked the map with many pros being dissatisfied with the rework especially of the A-site. Mirage and Inferno have been staples in the map pool for over a decade at this point.
If the map pool were to be changed once again then what maps would be removed and what maps would replace them? I believe there are two maps that could be replaced and what two maps could easily replace them in the active map pool.
The first map that would be taken out is most likely Vertigo. Even though it is a personal favorite of mine it is clear that so far it is the least favorite map of tier one pros.
The map would most likely be replaced by Cache which has been teased by Valve to be reworked in the new Source 2 engine. Cache was in already in the active map pool before spanning from 2014 to 2019 ironically being replaced in the active map pool by Vertigo.
The second map would be Mirage which may be a staple map in the game overall, but for professional play has slowly lost novelty. If we go off of the reasoning behind the Overpass removal then Mirage makes sense to be one of the next maps that could be on the chopping block. Overpass was seen as a bland and boring map to watch with most games on the map playing out very slowly, which is what Mirage has become. Inferno would fit this description as well with the playstyle of the map not changing much even with the map receiving small updates.
Either one of these maps could be replaced with Cobblestone or Train which are huge fan favorite maps. Cobblestone has a very sought after collection that comes with the map. One thing to note with maps in the active-duty pool is the souvenir system and the collection skins that accompany every map.
An AWP Dragon Lore from the Cobblestone collection with a Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham signature from PGL Krakow 2017. This skin is estimated to be worth around $450,000.
These skins include some of the most popular skins in the game like the AWP Dragon Lore in the Cobblestone collection.
