Anubis and Ancient, the final new additions to the Active Duty map pool during the CS:GO era, have become the two most popular maps among pros in CS2—and it’s making the competitive scene much more interesting.
While the exact reasoning behind the predilection for Anubis and Ancient is unclear, it could be related to the fact pros are still exploring strategies for them and finding new approaches instead of running the same protocols over and over again on maps like Inferno and Mirage. Since CS2 started to be used at LAN tournaments in October, Anubis was played a total of 60 times and Ancient was played 58 times, according to data from HLTV, which is considerably higher than their counterparts. Notably, the ever-present Inferno, which has been a popular pick in every previous version of Counter-Strike, has only been played 27 times—the fewest of all Active Duty maps.
The same data also shows that Anubis and Ancient are two of only three T-sided maps in professional Counter-Strike 2. Aside from them and Vertigo, all the other Active Duty maps—Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, and Overpass—are CT-side dominant.
While the pros seemingly prefer the newest maps so far in CS2, casual players seem to prefer things the other way around. I’ve played Anubis and Ancient only once in the 47 Premier matches I’ve participated as most of the players instantly ban them right away. While Mirage and Inferno are not popular among pros nowadays, many casual players prefer them because they’re the only maps they know callouts and grenade lineups on. Also, maps like Mirage are timeless for a reason!
The fact pros prefer to play Anubis and Ancient could help to make the community embrace changes and push Valve to modify the Active Duty map pool more often instead of only once or twice per year. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of playing the same two or three maps on repeat, and then watching them in pro play as well, as there isn’t anything new to learn.
