In the early hours of this morning, Valve unexpectedly released a significant update with many notable changes. One of them is undoubtedly the removal of the competitive map Train from the map pool to make way for Ancient, a new map added since December 2020 along with Operation Broken Fang. The last time Valve made a change to the CS:GO map pool was in March 2019 when the map Cache was replaced by Vertigo, another map also developed by Valve.
The Ancient map is developed by Valve and shares many similarities with the de_aztec map, both inspired by an abandoned area filled with trees and moss. This change has quickly stirred up the community as many express support for a change in the competitive map pool, and Ancient will bring a fresh breeze to CS:GO. However, some opinions suggest that Ancient is an unfinished map currently facing several issues related to FPS and graphics.
This change also has a significant impact on the professional CS:GO scene, especially with many tournaments currently ongoing. However, Valve quickly reassured that the RMR tournaments in the first half of this year will still use the old map pool system (with Train), and the change will only be applied in later tournaments.
Along with the change in the map pool, this update officially closes Operation Broken Fang, but still allows players to exchange unused points for rewards until May 15th. The Premier Competitive feature and Retake mode will also remain available for all players. Valve has also introduced CS:GO 360 Stats, a feature that allows players to track and evaluate statistics in Competitive and Wingman matches for a price of $0.99 per month. Finally, Valve has released a new Collection called Snakebite featuring 17 skins with the Broken Fang gloves as the rare special reward.
