Why CS2 Takes More Skill Than CS:GO – A Hot Take

Okay, wait a second. I know there’s a high chance that you saw the title of this article and clicked on it purely to hate-read, and that’s fine. But hear me out for a moment. There is a narrative surrounding Counter-Strike 2 that seems to proclaim it as some kind of broken mess of a game; a poor imitation of the utter perfection that was Global Offensive (I guess we’ve just retconned ‘getting CS:GO’d’ from our lexicon…). Today, I’m going to take you through a few reasons why I disagree with this and, furthermore, why I believe CS2 takes more skill than CS:GO.

Utility Is Actually Good Now

With the advent of CS2, Valve made a truly significant change to the CS franchise that seems to be somewhat taken for granted now. The skybox was removed, giving us near total freedom to throw utility any way that we want to, with only the geometry of the map itself standing in our way. The way utility works was utterly overhauled, and the entire philosophy of utility usage has been given an astonishing degree of depth.

Before CS2, smokes were…well, they were awful. Much like many of you, I’m sure, I was feeling nostalgic the other day and loaded up the legacy version of CS:GO. I couldn’t believe that we used to be fine with the Microsoft Paint airbrush rectangles. It genuinely horrified me. Now, the smokes are sexy, adaptive, and strategically fluid. They react to bullets, fill spaces volumetrically, and, of course, can be blown open.

This means that every single smoke play is inherently adaptive and layered. Where before you could simply throw a smoke and it was just there for its duration, now you can use smokes to your advantage in a multiplicity of ways. Think about the increasingly common Top-Mid smoke pop fight for the T-side on Mirage. 

Throw the Top-Mid smoke, position your AWPer behind it, pop the smoke with a nade, and your AWPer gets a free fight onto the Window player on your terms. Whilst this is a simple example (we could look at the multi-layering of Nuke Outside smoke walls as a more in-depth one), it does serve to illustrate my point – utility is no longer simply ‘damage’, ‘block’, or ‘hide’. It now lives and breathes within the round as an extension of your strategic or tactical choices.

Also, whilst I’m on this point, let’s talk about one-ways. How did we just accept one-ways for so long? They were the single most ‘it’s a feature, not a bug’ pile of nonsense I’ve ever seen. In a game with such an important esports scene, the fact that you could just sit in a broken smoke with a thoroughly unfair advantage is just, simply, stupid.

I know that Counter-Strike fans are all nostalgia-driven, change-fearing traditionalists, and we all look back at CS:GO with misty, rose-tinted spectacles, but we have to be able to admit when something is dumb. And one-ways were precisely that. The lack of them in CS2 is objectively a good thing – parity in competition begets actual skill, rather than abusing a feature that bordered on an exploit.

Now, every smoke, timing, and conditioning utility play has so much more depth to it than before. From the smallest upgrades, such as the breadth of specific smoke-breaking HE lineups, all the way to the beauty of the macro game at the highest level, with double smoke walls, self-breaking smoke tactics, and crazy pocket strat lineups, CS2’s utility has enabled a degree of skill-based strategizing that its forefather iterations could only dream of.

Every Mistake & Decision Carries More Weight

Okay, that’s more than enough utility talk. Let’s take a look at MR12, and why it’s good for the game. MR12 creates a competitive environment in which the macro margin for error is significantly lessened. Whilst MR16 gave us some great viewing experiences – and some memorable FACEIT overtime battles – MR12 has tightened up the way the game is played.

Now, there is real impetus on teams to focus on the economic battle. Back in MR15, it was possible to make a number of mistakes and still claw your way back slowly through the sheer number of rounds left on the table. Now, in CS2, it feels like every mistake is punished.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, whether in your own games or via watching pro CS, pistol rounds – and the round immediately after them – are of paramount importance in CS2. Think about it this way: if you win the pistol round, you stand a high chance of going 3:0 up, with only nine rounds left in the game. Or, on the other hand, if you win a risky force buy round, there’s a likelihood that you’ve taken control of the economic momentum for a good few rounds, in a format in which every round is worth its weight in gold.

Every economic consequence in MR12 is exactly that – consequential. Coaches, IGLs, and players are forced to commit to deliberate, detailed, and well-thought-out strategic choices, as there is simply no room for a slow, gradually changing default that lasts the entire half. Further to this, the introduction of MR12 has brought a crucial strategic skillset to the forefront: adaptability.

It takes skill to be psychologically and strategically adaptable. In all of its iterations, Counter-Strike has been a game of adaptability, conditioning, and subversion. In CS2, adaptability is more valuable than ever. It is not just about who can adapt first, but who can do it the most efficiently and the fastest. If certain defaults, site holds, or protocols aren’t working as they should, the most successful teams in the scene must adapt in breathtakingly fast fashion, as every single error carries significant weight in this reduced round format.

Peeker’s Advantage Is…A Good Thing?

Look, we’ve all felt the effects of CS2’s peeker’s advantage. Whilst it is nowhere near as egregious as it was in the early days, it is still very much present. Whilst, on the surface, this might seem frustrating, it is actually part of why CS2 takes more skill than CS:GO. Am I defending peeker’s advantage having such a prominent role in the meta? No. But it’s clear to see that it requires defensive players to act with more skill than simply holding an angle at headshot height and waiting.

In CS2, movement is key. The days of static defensive play are behind us, and the modern defensive Counter-Strike player is in a constant state of accurate counter-strafe jiggling. Precision is rewarded, as are micro-positioning decisions made on a second-by-second basis. This newest chapter in the history of our beloved franchise is one where constant focus, precise movements, and microdecisions are as important to winning gunfights as raw aim. It treads the thin line between art and science, as any truly top-tier competitive endeavour should.

The new impetus on being the aggressor in terms of taking fights, even when playing defensively, has given rise to some very impressive new playstyles. Would Danil “donk” Kryshkovets have been incredible in CS:GO? Yes. But his playstyle, with all its microadjustments, movement specifics, and aggression, feels as if it’s entirely built to excel in CS2. 

Whilst CS:GO was absolutely a wonderful game, and one that we all have countless fond memories of, CS2 is an upgrade in many ways. Of course, the game still has significant issues. Of course, it is not perfect; in fact, it never will be. But, in my eyes at least, almost everything about Counter-Strike 2 requires more focus, talent, and work to be great at. It is not simply a game in which you can load up for the first time and coast your way into the big leagues. It is a microcosm of microcosms, where everything – every keystroke, millisecond, and decision – combine in a battle of, to put it simply, skill.