Map pools and mode availability
CS2 maps can be grouped for Premier and professional competition, Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch, Wingman, Hostage Rescue, Arms Race, Retakes and other supported modes. Active Duty is the named pool used for Premier map selection and top-level competitive play; Reserves and Community groupings track other official or community maps. Wingman uses compact variants or maps, while Arms Race and other modes have their own selection. Pool labels explain availability and function, not a universal rank or quality order.
As of October 4, 2026, Valve’s July 8, 2026 update had added Cache to the Active Duty Map Pool and removed Overpass. The seven-map Active Duty pool was Ancient, Anubis, Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage and Nuke. This is a dated snapshot: subsequent updates or Premier seasons can change membership, and other queues may offer maps outside Active Duty. Cache was also added to Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch and Retakes in its April 28, 2026 release, which is a separate availability record from its later Active Duty promotion.
A map’s official release, availability in a mode and membership in Active Duty are three different facts. A map can be playable in Casual or Deathmatch while absent from Premier. Community Workshop maps may be subscribable without being official matchmaking maps. Likewise, a new visual update to a map does not automatically move it into a competitive pool. Each map page should state the mode and applicable dates rather than a bare “in rotation” label.
Recent Active Duty changes
On July 16, 2025, Overpass returned to Active Duty and Anubis left the pool. On January 21, 2026, Anubis returned and Train was removed as Premier Season Four began. On July 8, 2026, the start of Premier Season Five brought Cache into Active Duty and removed Overpass. The sequence shows that map membership changes are reversible: removal from Active Duty does not mean the map has been deleted from CS2 or removed from every mode.
Cache illustrates the distinction between a map’s path and its current group. Valve released its redesigned CS2 version on April 28, 2026 and added it to Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch and Retakes. It was promoted into the Active Duty pool on July 8, replacing Overpass there. Overpass leaving Active Duty did not make its CS2 map entry or every other supported availability disappear. See Cache and Overpass for the map pages.
These dates are examples of the change record, not an exhaustive history of every Active Duty pool. A complete history should record the update date, maps added and removed, affected queues, and any season boundary. The Patch Archive is the chronological record; a map’s update history may also include gameplay, collision, lighting or bug fixes unrelated to its pool status.
Premier selection and season context
Premier selection chooses from a defined map set; the veto procedure and the composition of that set are related but separate rules. In the September 22, 2026 CS2 update, Team 1 selects one map, Team 2 selects two maps, and Team 1 selects a final map; one of the four selected maps is then chosen at random for the match. This changes how the teams narrow and determine their map choice. It does not itself add or remove any map from the Active Duty pool.
A season change can coincide with a pool change, as when Season Four began with Anubis replacing Train or Season Five began with Cache replacing Overpass. A player consulting an older guide should therefore check both the season date and the pool update. CS Rating, map veto rules and map availability should not be conflated: the Premier and CS Rating pages cover mode and rating context, while this page tracks maps.
Competitive has its own map selection and map-specific Skill Group context. A map may remain selectable in Competitive after leaving Active Duty, or be offered there before entering Active Duty. Consult the live queue and dated update notes for current choices instead of projecting Premier’s pool onto every Competitive playlist. The Competitive page describes that mode separately.
Community maps and other mode rotations
Official updates can add or remove community-created maps in specific queues without changing Active Duty. For example, Valve can add a Workshop map to Wingman or a community map to Casual and Deathmatch. Those announcements should identify the map and the exact mode rather than saying that it entered “the CS2 pool.” A later update can remove it or replace it while leaving the map available through the Workshop.
Some maps have distinct variants or selected bombsites for modes such as Wingman. A Wingman listing is not the same as the full five-versus-five version being available in Premier. Hostage Rescue maps have their own objective and queue context, while Arms Race uses maps selected for that mode. Refer to Wingman, Hostage Rescue and Arms Race for the mode rules.
Community status also differs from community origin. A map created by a community mapper can become official CS2 content after Valve selects and integrates it. A Steam Workshop subscription alone does not place it in official matchmaking. See Workshop Maps for creation and distribution, and Map Control for tactical use of a map once selected.
Reading and recording pool changes
A clear rotation entry answers four questions: what queue or group changed, which map was added, which map was removed, and when the update took effect. If an announcement changes only a map version, objective, or mode list, record that separately. If one update affects multiple queues, enumerate them so readers do not assume the change applies everywhere.
A map guide can outlast its pool membership, while a dated rotation record can remain accurate after the live pool changes. Keep layout, callouts and tactics on the map page; put queue membership and change dates here. This prevents a historical fact such as “Cache entered Active Duty on July 8, 2026” from being mistaken for a timeless statement or a claim about every CS2 playlist.
This entry covers Counter-Strike 2 retail map availability and dated CS2 pool changes. Global Offensive map-pool history belongs to that game’s version and is excluded except where needed to understand a CS2 transition. Player Rotations describes in-round movement and is not the same topic.
September 27, 2023 Counter-Strike 2 launch update
The September 27, 2023 release included fixes and tweaks for shipped maps, separated Casual and Deathmatch maps into multiple groups, and made Office and Vertigo available as menu scenery. These are different map states: gameplay fixes affect the playable environment, map groups organize mode selection, and menu scenery is presentation. The patch does not provide a complete map-by-map change list.
Shipped-map fixes and Inferno availability
The August 31, 2023 Limited Test patch added Inferno to all game modes available in that build and noted additional bug fixes and tweaks across shipped maps. It did not list every affected map or describe each fix, so this record does not assign a specific route, collision change or balance effect to the unnamed adjustments.
Map availability is dated separately from map identity: being selectable in the Limited Test does not prove that a map remains in the current pool. See Inferno for the named map entry.
August 15, 2023 Limited Test map pool
On August 15, 2023, Italy entered the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test Casual and Deathmatch selections, while Anubis and Ancient were removed from the selections addressed by the patch. The availability change is a historical test snapshot and should not be confused with a current rotation.
Italy is a Hostage Rescue map; Anubis and Ancient are Bomb Defusal maps. The update records mode-pool decisions, not a layout change to any of the three maps. See Italy, Anubis and Ancient.
Maps and modes opened to Casual, Deathmatch and offline play
On August 17, 2023, the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test made all maps previously shipped in the test available in Casual and Deathmatch matchmaking. The same update opened every previously shipped map and game mode for offline play. The note describes what the test client exposed at that time; it is not a statement about a current live map pool.
Offline availability is separate from online queue selection. Maps that can be loaded offline need not be in a particular matchmaking rotation. See Offline Play, Casual and Deathmatch for the dated modes, and Italy for its adjacent test-map updates.
August 2–7, 2023 Limited Test map changes
The August 2 update disabled Wingman, added Anubis to Deathmatch, Casual and Competitive, added Ancient to Deathmatch and Casual, and removed Overpass and Vertigo from the Limited Test. On August 7, Anubis left Competitive while Ancient entered it. The map-specific availability changed within days, so these records must be read with their dates and mode labels.
The same period included collision, lighting and geometry fixes for Anubis and Ancient. These are separate map-maintenance changes, not evidence that a map was created or permanently removed. See the individual map entries for the details.
Limited Test map availability (July 17, 2023)
On July 17, 2023, the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test added Overpass to Deathmatch, Casual, Wingman and Competitive; added Vertigo to Deathmatch and Casual; and removed Nuke and Office. This is a historical snapshot of that beta build. Map availability changed again in later Limited Test updates and at retail release, so the entry should be read as a dated rotation event rather than a current pool list. See Overpass, Vertigo, Nuke and Office for the map entries.