This article is part of our Beyond the Game series.
Nearly a week ago, Valve released a new update to the game to bring in the new Dust2 rework version out of Beta. Although the setup remains the same for the map besides its new textures, many questions loom for players of what would change in the upcoming map pool.
eGamerNews' very own Brandon Martin sat down with Cloud9 in-gamer leader Tarik "tarik" Celik at the ELEAGUE Premier Playoffs to talk about the new version of Dust2 and how it could affect teams going into the new year.
On October 13, 2016, Valve released a reworked, Inferno, to go live in the reverse map pool. In February, after some minor tweaks and adjustments made from the community and player-base helped Valve's decision to replace Dust2 with the revamped Inferno, tossing up the map pool throughout the scene. The change in the map pool forced some teams to adjust, leaving Overpass and Cobblestone as big contenders for action going into the 2017 year. Although heavy criticism from the players sparked the interest in the need for change in the upcoming year.
The revamped Inferno debuted at the second event of the year of DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, tallying up the most veto bans throughout the event. Not favored at first but overtime teams began to adjust and work with the new layout to become one of the classics to return in the meta. As a classic, Inferno was also featured in Gambit's 2-1 win over Immortals to take home the PGL Major Krakow crown, first in team history. Nearly a year after Inferno was released, Valve came back to make another announcement with the rework of Dust2 to hit the beta.
Soon after being released in beta, Dust2 went live just a week after as the community swamped to test out the new features. Although not much has changed drastically on the new map, it does hold some nostalgic characteristic of 1.6 that brings back the good old times. The architecture seems to be a mixture of the classic 1.6 and current CS:GO textures will slight adjustments with the overall physically look. Not much has changed as far as mechanics are concerned, but some angles have changed such as the box on A-ramp and both cars on on the bomb sites. The mid-box will now have only one way to boost on-top to access catwalk, and the box is now made easier to climb on top to advance your position. Another change in middle would adjust "palm tree" with a utility pole now more forward, cutting the distance of catwalk by a few feet.
A-ramp now has a smaller box for less coverage holding the ramp at distance.
Mid-box or "x-box" has a slight change when boosting.
The slight physical adjustments shouldn't change the overall performance of teams when advancing or executing on a bombsite, but the visual updates may help others. For a long time there have been complaints with the textures blending in the with the background of certain areas of the map that made it difficult for players to see when holding an angle. Now, the map got a brighter more blue-look to allow the models textures to stand out, making it easier for teams to spot their opponents. With slight physical features changed and visuals adjusted, Tarik "tarik" Celik of Cloud9 gave eGamerNews his insights of the new map and what to expect with the changes in the meta.
It has been over a year now since Dust2 has been in the active pool as tarik has been studying teams on Inferno for quite some time. When asked about the announcement of the reworked Dust2, tarik had this to say:
"Yeah! I'm excited to have one of my favorite maps back along with everyone else. It's a classic map that everyone loves to play on, so yeah im happy its coming back."
In prior map pool changes, the revamped Inferno replaced Dust2, which kept the map pool rotation at seven maps. Judging by past changes, the map pool will get a new makeover which could spark some interest in the meta. Although it is uncertain what Valve has planned with the map pool, tarik is confident his team will benefit:
"I know we can benefit from the new Dust2 since we all pretty much played well on the map, so that would be another strong map for us to pick up. I don't know what Valve is going to do whether increase the map pool or remove, but if I had to pick it would be Nuke since we don't really play on that map. As for the changes in the meta, I think a lot of teams would benefit having Dust2 back since a lot of the players want Cobblestone gone."
Tarik made a good point as far as what Valve may do when announcing the migration of Dust2 into the map pool if one map will be removed or the map pool will increase. Regardless of what Valve decides, the addition of Dust2 will benefit most teams in the current meta, giving more options in the map veto.
Valve has not released any more updates regarding the announcement of when the addition of Dust2 will be active in the competitive map pool, which should be expected to be active for the ELEAGUE Major in Boston.
