On November 19, the CS:GO update was released, which introduced several important changes at once. The most notable of these – is the change in the composition of the maps included in the competitive mapple. Dust2 has been removed from the list, while Anubis has been added.
Anubis instead of Dust2
The FACEIT platform has already reacted to the changes: Anubis has appeared in the list of maps available for matchmaking, but it has replaced Train and not Dust2, which remains available for now as well. The update has already affected the cost of skins as well: souvenir sets with items from the Dust2 collection have gone up significantly in price. The sets associated with recent majors have grown the strongest in price. It is likely that in the future the price increase will also affect rare skins from these collections.
Many players and analysts were doubtful about the changes in the competitive mapple. For example, Duncan «Thorin» Shields considered Valve's decision unfortunate: in his opinion, Dust2 was clearly not the most problematic map, while Nuke, Vertigo or Ancient have far more technical and gameplay flaws. Nikola «Niko» Kovacs of G2 also thinks so. He noted that Tuscan or Cache, which is more tournament-ready, could have been chosen instead of Anubis, which still has lengthy fixes and tweaks to make.
For some, the update was cause for jokes. For example, BIG captain Johannes «tabseN» Wodarz mentioned in his tweet that now «they are finished». Indeed, for 2022, it was Dust2 that was the map that BIG chose most often, and the team's winrate on it reached 61%.
Weakening of AWP and M4A1-S
In addition, the developers have made two significant changes that will affect gameplay, namely the selection and use of weapons. The AWP's magazine has been halved and is now 5 rounds rather than 10. In addition, the distance modifier of the M4A1-S decreased from 0.99 to 0.94.
Analyzing these changes, one of the community members published calculations on Reddit, in which he showed that the M4A1-S would lose 20-30% of its effectiveness when firing at longer ranges. As a result, it will take about the same number of hits to hit the target as from the M4A4. At short ranges, the advantage of the M4A1-S will remain: for example, to hit the enemy from 500 units (about 9 meters) 4 hits to the body will be enough against 5 for the M4A4. However, as the distance increases, the modifier has an increasing effect, and at distances of 1000 units or more, the number of shots becomes the same.
Calculations showing how the damage and hits have changed for the old and new versions of the M4A1-S
Opinions are divided on the AWP's magazine reduction. Some feel that this change will not have a significant impact on the game. Analysts of PureSkill service, having analyzed the statistics of 5 thousand matches, found out that in most cases players with AWP make two or three shots per round. Five shots or more are fired by about 10%.