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Just our luck, we cover CS2 thinking we’re safe from radical change, then a few days later Valve decides to ruin CS forever. Well, at least according to the Internet.
Twitter CS leaker, Aquarius, posted about a behind-the-scenes change in the newest CS2 update, where “mp_maxrounds” is set to 24 (instead of 30). This means a half is now 12 rounds, and you win on 13 - otherwise known as “MR12”.
Sure, it's MM and that's for casuals and sadists, but that doesn't mean this won't affect pro-CS.
Valve like the Pro and Casual experiences to be virtually the same. They even moved to adding four 30-second timeouts in Premier MM. So it's hard to believe they'd have a disparity as big as the number of rounds played.
So, as a viewer, what would this change mean?
For one, you should prepare for less nail-biting matches. If you think back to the last 2 years of CS, all the best games involve 30 rounds and overtime. Some notable examples with the Stockholm Major final, FaZe vs ENCE on Ancient, and even as far back as the Boston Major final.
As our own aizyesque points out on Twitter, think of all the 14 - X scorelines we’ve seen dramatically thrown away. These are some of the moments that make CS special. Those experiences are devalued when it’s fewer rounds. That’s if those same games even happen and not just end 13-6 before any comeback could ever get going.
Sure, maybe we’ll just have to get used to the idea that 12-4 is the new 15-6. But this still leaves other issues like BO1 upsets being more abundant with fewer rounds and less nuanced strats from IGLs trying to get the team out of an 8-10.
While you can argue against all of those points - in fact, someone on the internet probably is right now - there’s one problem that can’t be argued away:
The economy would need to change.
If it doesn't, can you imagine how much of the half is decided by just the pistol round?
Losing the pistol and the force brings you down to 0-3. In MR12 that would be 25% of your T/CT-side decided and done. Ugh.
Not only that, but if you think saving is a problem now, imagine when every round matters more. You’d have to discourage this somehow, or else we’ll have less and lower-quality CS. We for one would prefer an exciting BO3 in MR15 to a MR12 with saves every round.
Okay, all of that was pretty negative. It’s clear that the MR15 enjoyers are speaking the loudest – or that we have a bias, erhm…
So let’s talk about why this could be good for CS.
If we’re being honest, a game of CS can take forever.
A few years ago a BO1 might last 40-50 minutes, while today we’re easily approaching games that last an hour to an hour and 20 minutes. If you spread that over a BO3 or even a BO5, you can see how it adds up to a bit of a marathon.
MR12 would at least provide a reprieve from never-ending maps and series. Launders point this out in his video, and he brings up another interesting point -
Whilst game length doesn’t matter to most viewers at home, it impacts people you might not think much about: The people behind the scenes who make sure all these amazing moments make it to our homes. Launders himself mentioned having worked 14-hour days - it’s tough, even for a game that you love.
So, in its current form, MR12 might not sound great gameplay-wise, but there’s good reason for Valve to add it. We’ll see if it sticks around once the game is officially out. And no, MR12 wasn’t stolen from Valorant.
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