For once when making a major patch to CS2, Valve have decided to listen to the fans.

The fans of a different game.

The gist of last night’s flabbergasting update is that Valve have rectified the biggest gripe players from other tactical shooters have when playing Counter-Strike. Ammunition management is now not just a measure of how many times you’ve clicked your mouse, but how many times you’ve reloaded.

That’s because the remaining bullets in each magazine you discard now don’t magically teleport back into your reserve, but are also discarded. In practice, this means every time you reload your AK-47, it won’t matter if you’ve fired all your bullets or just a single one - you still lose 30 shots.

Some think this is the first step in a radical realism shift for Counter-Strike. I mean, what’s next?

Buying ammunition like in 1.6? Dropping magazines to your teammates? Having to do regular gun maintenance or your gun will jam in overtime?

We doubt any of this is the case, as it’s quite obvious what this update is meant to address. By limiting the number of times you can reload in a round, it also limits how many times you can aimlessly shoot in a round.

Rejoice - Valve found a fix to the incessant smoke spamming!

At least, that’s what we think about it. How it will work for the pros in practice, we’ll have to see soon, as most of the ongoing Counter-Strike tournaments are, of course, staying on the old patch.

In any case, our tip for all you smoke sprayers out there, remember this old carpenter’s proverb:

Measure twice, cut once.