Dataminers have uncovered a huge update to the in-game competitive ecosystem of Counter-Strike that appears to be coming to CS2 when the title launches later this summer.
Within the Aug. 2 update to the CS2 limited test, which added Anubis and Ancient as playable maps while also teaching chicken to swim, at least three prominent Counter-Strike dataminers have confirmed data that indicates the franchise’s Premier Competitive mode will be adopting a seasonal format and an official rankings system.
Ranked seasons and global leaderboards have been a feature of other prominent competitive multiplayers titles, but up until seemingly now they have never been included in the game of Counter-Strike client-side.
Members of the worldwide player base have long used third-party matchmaking services like ESEA and FACEIT, which offer both seasons and leaderboards.
A screenshot shared by CS content creator Aquarius shows what the new Premier hub could potentially look like in CS2. This page appears to include access to global and potentially regional leaderboards, with the option of looking at both the current and past seasons.
The page, if it remains looking close to that Aug. 2 image, will also share statistics for all the members of your team, which appears to include a new statistic called ‘CS Rating’—potentially similar to the player ratings used by HLTV.
Related: When is CS2 coming out?
The first season of Premier Competitive will supposedly be called “Beta Season,” which implies it could serve as more of a testing ground for the new format rather than an official first season. Premier Competitive is a relatively new version of the traditional Competitive mode; introduced to CS:GO at the end of 2020, it utilizes the map ban-and-pick system similar to one used in professional tournaments, using maps from the current active duty map pool.
With more and more features seemingly coming to Counter-Strike via CS2, fans simply cannot wait much longer for the long-awaited sequel update.
