Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is heading into the middle of 2020 as not only the leading first-person shooter in the world of competitive gaming but arguably as the world’s most influential and popular Esports title. It recently passed over one million concurrent players for the first time in its history, and the recent tournaments at IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League Season XI also broke plenty of viewership records in the CS:GO world and the wider gaming community.
Counter-Strike is nothing without its well-crafted and specially designed map pool, however, so we thought we would take a look at CS:GO’s map pool, how it is influencing the game at all levels and where it is new players should look to kick themselves off on. At the time of writing, there have been nearly 78,000 map picks at Counter-Strike’s official events and we’ll be looking at four of the most popular so far.
Inferno
One of the oldest and grandest maps in the CS:GO map pool, Inferno is still going strong as of 2020. Having been a part of every Counter-Strike game since its debut in 1.1, this map is set in a beautiful little Italian hamlet and is arguably still the most well-rounded map in the game, with a T side win rate of 49.3% against the CT’s 50.7%.
At the latest CS:GO tournament, the eleventh season of ESL’s Pro League, Inferno was the third most popular pick on the European server with 30 plays and the second most popular on the North American server with 10 picks.
Mirage
It might have lagged behind the likes of Dust II and Inferno for most of its lifetime, but Mirage has finally had something of a resurgence in the competitive world of Counter-Strike since the turn of the year. This Moroccan-themed map is slightly more lopsided than Dust II and Inferno with a CT win percentage of just over 52%, but the emerging popularity of the map is sure to bring with it a whole host of new plays and tactics that might just swing that back into balance.
At the last Pro League, Mirage was picked just 26 times across both servers which might suggest that professional players are still a little hesitant about being unrefined on Mirage still.
Dust II
If Counter-Strike is known for one map, it’s Dust II. The map set out in the sands of the Middle East has been a staple in the competitive Counter-Strike ever since the debut game. Teams such as Na’Vi have made themselves regular favorites for esports bettors at Unikrn.com on the map, and the B bombsite on Dust II remains arguably the hardest to conquer in the entire game, lending the map a huge amount of strategy.
T sides are actually favorites on Dust II still, with a 51% win percentage, and the map has once again found more of a home in Europe, being picked more than any other map at the recent ESL Pro League.
Train
Whilst the top three maps we’ve included in this article are fairly common with both pros and casuals, Train really is a map that professional players seem to flock towards. Featuring long narrow corridors great for sniping and plenty of corridors that all look the same, Train is a map where grenade throws and radio calls are all required to be inch-perfect.
The map currently has 54% CT side win bias, making it the most lopsided map of any included in this list, but is still the third most popular pick at Counter-Strike events with nearly 10,000 picks over the years. Sides like Mousesports have carved out such a fearsome reputation on the map that it has proven to be the cornerstone to their successes in recent times, showcasing the rewards on offer if you can lock down a decent level of knowledge on Train.
