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What’s New With CS2’s Premier Season 2?

Upon the launch of Counter-Strike 2, the main ranked matchmaking mode shifted from Global Offensive’s Competitive matchmaking to Premier, which also included a number of changes, especially in how ranks are calibrated and presented. After more than a year of Season 1, Valve has officially announced the end of the first-ever CS2 Premier season and immediately introduced the next one alongside a number of key updates to the overall gameplay. So, what exactly does Premier Season 2 bring to the table?

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What Exactly Is Premier?

cs2 premier page

Premier matchmaking is now considered to be the main online matchmaking game mode for Counter-Strike 2 since its release, taking over the Competitive mode that was the only option in CS:GO. Premier matchmaking is more transparent when it comes to showing players their rank and what they stand to gain or lose before a match, which was one of the problems lots of people voiced out back in CS:GO. Now, everyone knows exactly what their premier rating is and how much they will lose or gain at the start of every game, reducing the factor of uncertainty. CS2 Premier matchmaking also comes in Premier Seasons, unlike Competitive mode which just keeps going and will only stop with a rank decay. Premier Seasons will last for a specific amount of time, and at the end, everyone’s ratings will be reset ahead of the next season. CS2 Premier also makes use of maps in the Active Duty Map Pool exclusively and determines what map will be used in a specific game through a banning system until only one map is left over. Both teams’ map statistics are shown to influence decisions and make the match play out on as even of a battlefield as possible. The choices are also very limited and are determined by what maps are currently on the Active Duty Map Pool as determined by Valve, which mimics what professional players experience in their games.


More Reasons to Play Premier

cs2 premier ranks

CS2 Premier Season 1 was definitely a new concept that Valve adopted, but apart from the premier rating system which served as the players’ metric of how good they have been in matches, there wasn’t a whole lot that changed. For Premier Season 2, though, there are plenty of changes that players will live with for the next five months.

A Way Shorter CS2 Premier Season 2

CS2’s Premier Season 1 was an incredibly long one, spanning more than a year without any significant overhaul or update to it. One of the most notable changes that Valve implemented this time around was the shorter timeframe that Premier Season 2 would be played on. It will only last until the BLAST.tv Austin Major, the first Major championship of 2025, which will be held in June. Following that, it is already anticipated that the game will shift into Premier Season 3, but nothing is confirmed as of the moment. Still, this would make a slight improvement in keeping players engaged with the season as they now have a definite timeline on when it would end, allowing them to properly map out how they can hit their CS rating goals before June rolls around.

Commemorative Premier Season 2 Medal

cs2 premier medal season 2

In Valve’s announcement for CS2 Premier Season 2, they introduced a new in-game cosmetic item: the Commemorative Premier Season 2 medal. Players can obtain this by meeting certain criteria. First, by having an account in good standing; second, by reaching at least 25 wins in Premier matches throughout the season; and finally, by having an active premier CS rating at the end of the season. Each Premier Season 2 medal is “upgradeable” and will have bars that correspond to the number of wins achieved and the final CS rating group attained. The color of the medal’s bars will be based on what rating was achieved, and the number of bars denotes the number of wins in that particular season in multiples of 25 (ex., 25 wins, one bar; 50 wins, two bars, etc.). To celebrate the new season and the official end of Premier Season 1, Valve also released commemorative medals for every player that ever obtained a CS rating for the inaugural season, regardless of whether or not they had 25 total wins or an active rating by the last day, unlike the requirements for Season 2’s medal. As of writing, the Premier Season 1 medal is now available in the inventories of every eligible player and can be displayed on their profile just like any other medal, coin, or pin.

Train Replaces Vertigo in the Map Pool

cs2 premier train and vertigo

Unlike the Competitive mode, which allows players to choose specific maps they want to play with a wide variety of choices, the CS2 Premier mode is restricted to what Valve determines should be in the Active Duty map pool. For next season, Valve made the decision to replace Vertigo’s spot in Premier matchmaking and the overall Active Duty Map Pool with Train, which had just been released for CS2 recently after a major rework. This update will give Premier Season 2 players a new challenge to figure out, especially those who perform particularly better on Vertigo.

Significant Weapon Changes

cs2 weapon changes from CS2 patch notes

The overall gameplay aspect of CS2 got a huge update as well, with price cuts mainly being the talking point. For starters, the M4A4 will now only cost $2,900, the same amount as the M4A1-S, for ten more bullets in the magazine. This will definitely shake up loadout choices and serve as an improvement for the Counter-Terrorist economy. The FAMAS, which goes overlooked in most cases in favor of powerful SMGs or other rifles, will also receive an adjustment from the Premier Season 2 update. Valve explicitly stated that the FAMAS would get improvements to its standing and crouching accuracy, also with a price cut down to $1,950, according to the blog post’s official patch notes. Some smaller weapon changes include reduced crouching accuracy for the MP9, MP5-SD, and MP7, and a better scope for the AUG and SG 553.

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