New Maps and Economy Changes: CS:GO Update

Gamers have got fresh excitement in the legendary game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The latest update might influence your playing habits and economic strategies.

This is the first such big CS:GO update after adding a new weapon – MP5-SD. In a smaller recent update, Valve changed the appearance of counter terrorists, turning them into FBI agents on Nuke, Office, and Agency. Also, skins from 2018 Inferno and Nuke collections became available through rank-up drops.

New CS:GO Maps

The community of this game is super creative, producing lots of awesome skins and interesting virtual locations. Two new maps added to CS:GO are also community-made. Valve approved them for Casual Matchmaking. These maps are:

• Biome – a kind of big greenhouse in a desert;
• Sub-Zero – battles in an Arctic base.

Rotations of Existing Maps

As often happens with CS:GO maps, some locations migrate in and out of official matchmaking. Usually, the developers do this for remastering. In May 2018, an improved version of Dust II returned to the Active Duty Map Pool, replacing Cobblestone, so at the tournament Faceit Major in London, many teams played on this iconic map. This time:

• Austria is added to Competitive and Casual Matchmaking (in the Group Delta);
• Canals is removed from Competitive Matches.

New maps mean new in-game excitement and also new challenges – if you don’t know Austria well enough, you may lose there and get a lower CS:GO rank. It will be a good idea to train on the map in offline mode, in Casual Matchmaking, or Deathmatches.

Changes to the Economy

While getting experience, players pay more attention to the in-game economy. The following changes might influence your strategy:

In Competitive Matchmaking, both teams are now considered to start the half with a one-round ‘losing streak’ that is reset following a round win. Instead of $1400, the Round 1 loser receives $1900, then $2400 for a subsequent loss, etc. – the official blog post says.

This will make victory in pistol rounds not so influential in CS:GO matches. To change this money reward, use the console command mp_starting_losses. Learn more about console commands with this guide.

Weapon Adjustments

Some slight changes happened to CS:GO weapons:

• CZ75-Auto became a bit less accurate and got stronger recoil. Accuracy recover rate is better now.
• Tec-9 became more accurate.
• SG553 now costs $2750.
• AUG now costs $3150.

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