For the third straight Major in a row, the most illustrious Counter-Strike 2 Major will feature a different active duty map pool. Valve announced today that the remade Train will replace Vertigo in time for the BLAST.tv Austin Major in April 2025.
With the next CS2 Major using this map pool, many are now expecting the in-game Premier pool and other official tournaments to swap in Train in place of Vertigo.
End of The Line for Vertigo
Train officially returned to Counter-Strike, debuting for the first time in CS2, back in November 2024. The reworked map has been subjected to a complete visual overhaul (including a gorgeous rain effect when outdoors) and several major gameplay changes. Notably, both bombsites are now more open with less train car clutter, the Heaven area looking down on the A site is gone, and the “Popdog” ladder has been expanded to a long spiral staircase. The CS2 community as a whole has eagerly been waiting for Train to come to CS2 for some time.
While Train’s arrival to the Active Duty map pool was inevitable, Valve has finally confirmed which map it will replace: Vertigo. At the professional level, outside of a couple of top North American teams, Vertigo has been one of the least played maps. According to statistics from HLTV, it is the least played map at big events in 2024 other than Overpass, which was removed from the map pool during the year.
The only thing that remains unclear is when Train will officially be implemented in the in-game and other tournament map pools. The 2025 calendar for CS2 is set to officially begin just as week from now with BLAST Spring Bounty 2025. With the changes to the CS2 ecosystem, all big events will affect the global standings that determine who is invited to the Major or its closed qualifiers.
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