Valve is following the footsteps of other game developers and added a new season to Counter-Strike 2’s competitive ladder. This was launched alongside a few pivotal changes to the gameplay as well.
Besides resetting the ranked ladder and making each Premier player start from scratch after a year and a half of grinding, the developer updated the latest map in the active pool, a plethora of weapons, and fixed a few bugs. These changes were launched on Jan. 29.
All changes in CS2 Premier season two update
Most importantly, ranked has been restarted. Each player earned a medal commemorating their respective rank in the previous season. On top of that, each player’s rating was also recalibrated based on their standing in season one. It’s a healthy but new approach by Valve to CS2 and the CS franchise as as a whole. In the previous iteration of the game, CS:GO, there were no such things as seasons, with players continuously losing their MMR and rank if they were inactive.
Going back to the grind also requires some adjusting, especially on the CT side. That’s due to M4A4 and FAMAS changes. The former had its price lowered, with the latter receiving the same treatment. FAMAS, however, also had its accuracy improved.
The latest CS2 update overall seems like a quality patch. You can see all of its notes below.
Premier
- Premier Season Two is here, and Premier matchmaking has resumed.
- Every player who earned a CS Rating during Season One will receive a commemorative Premier Season One Medal, which includes detailed Season Statistics.
- Every player will have their CS Rating recalibrated based on their Season One performance, and will need to re-establish their CS Rating by winning 10 matches.
- Train has been added to the Active Duty map pool.
- Vertigo has been removed from the Active Duty map pool
Gameplay
- M4A4 price reduced to $2,900.
- FAMAS accuracy improved and price reduced to $1,950.
- Reduced crouching accuracy for the MP9, MP5-SD, and MP7.
- Adjusted scope dot on AUG/SG to be more usable at range.
Maps
- Removed a boost angle from Long Dog to Bombsite A.
- Fixed lighting artifacts on double-sided materials.
Other
- Added a new radar dynamic zoom option that will grow or shrink the radar to include your teammates, bomb, and other detected elements.
- Adjusted grenade order in spectator UI to match weapon selection order.
- Increased brightness of carried C4 in UI.
- Added fallback logic to allow playing incomplete demo files, either copied from an ongoing live match or recovered after a game server crash.
- Fixed an exploit where users could use secondary fire on R8 Revolver and then sell it back.
- Counter-strafe summaries are now available in game server log data distributed via log address in addition to console logs.
This CS2 ranked overhaul matches well with the start of the professional calendar. The first big event in the form of BLAST Bounty Season One has already concluded, but IEM Katowice 2025 began on Jan. 29, marking the first important LAN tournament of the year.
