The final day of March brought along a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update. The big news are a couple of new maps that have been added to matchmaking servers and the official conclusion of Operation Shattered Web.
A new breed of CS:GO community maps
The most exciting feature to come with this update is the inclusion of new community maps into matchmaking servers. Anubis and Chlorine have been picked to replace Studio and Breach in the map pool.
It’s fair to say that Breach and especially Studio are among the well-liked maps among players and we are going to miss them. That being said, I absolutely love the new entries. Anubis and Chlorine finished first and second in the 2019 Mapcore map contest, respectively, and boy oh boy do they deserve the spotlight.
Anubis is a visual stunner. I would argue the most beautiful CS:GO map to date. I do have slight concerns about gameplay as it does feel a bit too closed up at times, to a degree of saturation. I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s just early days shock and I do believe Anubis will grow on the community fast.
I’m very biased towards Chlorine, so you can take this with a delicate brow raise. This map is an obvious homage to Aztec, which I’ve held dear to my heart for nearly 20 years. But, and that’s a huge BUT, Chlorine stands on its own perfectly well. It is surprisingly well constructed for all types of play – something even competitive maps struggle with at times.
There’s plenty of angles to look out for, the mandatory open field for long range duels and some cheeky boost and peek locations. As a result, Chlorine comes off as a viable map to play actual Counter-Strike on and having genuine fun while doing so.
The new maps will be available in official Deathmatch, Casual and Scrimmage game modes, but not competitive matchmaking.
New skins and the end of Operation Shattered Web
Fans of CS:GO skins were also treated well by this update. The new Prisma 2 case contains 17 community designed weapon skins and the Horizon knives in Chroma finishes. As a non-skin guy myself, I must say some of these skins do look delicious.
Finally, the third major part of these patch notes is the official end of CS:GO Operation Shattered Web. Valve marked the occasion by gifting commemorative inscriptions to those with OSW coins within their inventory at the time of the Operation’s final hour.
For the full CS:GO patch notes, here’s the official release. For the final changes to Breach and Studio before their removal from the map pool, check our piece on the February CS:GO update.
