After a drought of updates in recent months, Valve has returned to CS2 with a huge new update that adds a ton of content to the game, as well as some fixes to the general gameplay, which should improve CS2 at a high level.
There’s a ton to unpack, so let’s dive into all of the changes in the February 7 CS2 update.
Credit: Daniel Morris
New CS2 case: the Kilowatt Case
It’s been a long wait for a new CS2 case. The most recent addition was the Revolution Case, arriving in February 2023. Now, the Kilowatt Case has arrived, alongside 17 new CS2 skins to glam up your loadout. These skins are all community-made, representing the best the Steam Workshop has to offer.
Adding to the excitement is the addition of the Kukri Knife, arriving with the twelve original knife finishes and a bunch of new custom animations. Oh, and there’s Zeus skins now. All of this arrives alongside the Ambush Sticker Capsule, which brings 21 community-created stickers that you can apply to your weapons.
Arms Race, Shoots, and Baggage
An old favorite returns! After being absent from the release of CS2, Arms Race, the game mode in which you must get kills to progress from one weapon to the next, has arrived. Alongside the mode, Valve has brought back the maps Shoots and Baggage, which are currently exclusive to Arms Race after being part of the mode in CS:GO.
While for many, competitive CS2 is the highlight, it’s good that Valve remains committed to the casual side of the game too. This is where the community grows, and Counter-Strike as a whole benefits as a result. It’s a big step forward toward feature parity with CS:GO, so hopefully, this trajectory will continue over the next few updates.
Custom sticker placement
Arguably the biggest new addition with the new update is the addition of custom sticker placements, as well as a fifth sticker slot on weapons. Since the launch of CS:GO, we’ve been restricted to four sticker slots in pre-determined places. No longer! You can now move stickers wherever you’d like, opening up the possibilities for CS2 sticker crafts forever.
Obviously, the full potential of this feature won’t be realized for some time, as gamers come to terms with what is possible with the new system. Early crafts have been exactly what you might expect, with the Counter-Strike community finding every way possible to make a phallic design, prompting this hilarious response from Valve:
Still, we’re confident this change will change the way sticker crafts work in CS2 forever, and will prove to be a positive refresh to the old system.
Fixing peeker’s advantage
In terms of gameplay, this is the change that the pros will be most pleased with. The new CS2 update claims to have fixed peeker’s advantage, which was one of the big things holding the game back from matching CS:GO’s near-perfect gunplay. In CS2, it was too easy to swing a corner and get an easy kill due to latency. That seems to now be solved, at least according to early reports. Here’s Apeks rifler STYKO’s take on the situation on X:
“I actually got 2 kills today when I held an angle, so I think it’s an improvement.” – STYKO
If peeker’s advantage truly is fixed, then it should inspire a huge shift in the meta. However, there are some concerns that the change while IEM Katowice 2024 is ongoing could punish teams making a deep run. This is due to the Copenhagen Major RMR starting just days after the conclusion of IEM Katowice. There is understandable concern that teams in the Katowice Playoffs could struggle to adapt to the new patch with less practice time than those already eliminated.
Either way, this is a temporary concern. It seems Valve has solved one of CS2’s biggest issues, putting the game in a much healthier place overall.
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