Tomorrow marks the last day of ESL Pro League’s seventeenth season, and the prestigious CS:GO tournament will feature a little something special before the grand final: a showmatch featuring CS2, the upcoming new version of the game.
Fans and pro players alike have been closely following the news emerging about CS2, the upcoming full-scale upgrade to the decade-old Global Offensive. Featuring a much-anticipated overhaul that brings the game over to Valve’s cutting-edge Source 2 engine, the developers have already revealed a slate of exciting features like dynamic smokes, a sub-tick server system and revamped audio.
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CS2 is expected to launch sometime in the summer, with a limited playtest and a continuously expanding base of invited players serving as a wide beta test for the product. While we’re all waiting for more information to be revealed about the final product, those in the beta are allowed to create content about the game, meaning the rest of the community can also follow along via videos and livestreams.
In terms of competitive play, it was recently revealed that the BLAST Paris Major will be the final such event for Global Offensive, with the second Major of the year canceled. It is unclear when third-party tournament organizers will make the shift to the new engine, so we don’t yet know when the pros will make the grand leap over to the new version of the game.
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However, we will soon get a taste of what’s to come, courtesy of ESL. The organizers of the Pro League have included a showmatch on the final day of the broadcast, which will feature the CS2 version of the game and some of the best players of the world, promising high-level plays and incredible action before the big-ticket affair of the day: the best-of-five grand final for the seventeenth Pro League title.
Currently, only Dust 2 is available to play on the new engine, so most likely that is where the showmatch will take place, bringing back countless memories for the viewers and the participants. ESL hasn’t yet revealed who will take place in the match, but don’t expect those who made it to the grand final to show up. Cloud9 have already punched their ticket, while the semifinal between FaZe and NAVI is still ongoing at the time of writing.
