The historic CS:GO map de_cache has been reworked and redesigned by two of its creators, Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling and Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo. After its upcoming debut, the map is expected to return to the Active Duty competitive map pool.
Cache was introduced to CS:GO in 2013 with the Operation Bravo update. But the map was removed from the Active Duty map pool in March and replaced by Vertigo, pending the rework from FMPONE.
The remastered version of Cache will be showcased for the first time at ESL One New York on Sept. 29. But fans have seen sneak peeks from FMPONE after he teased Cache artwork inspired by the Ukranian cafe Pripyat.
Although Vertigo is unpopular with many professional CS:GO players, Valve tends to rotate older maps out of the pool before the new maps, pending updates from its creators. Inferno, for example, was replaced by Nuke in April 2016. Later, in October, Valve released the updated version of Inferno. Then, in February 2017, Inferno officially replaced Dust II in the Active Duty map pool, pending its rework.
Therefore, fans can expect Cache to be reintroduced to the map pool sometime in 2020. Although a release date hasn’t been confirmed, previous patterns indicate that reworked maps are readded after a few months.
Cache could replace either Mirage or Overpass since both maps are the oldest in the current Active Duty map pool. Fans shouldn’t expect Valve to remove Vertigo or Nuke, however. Although they’re unpopular maps, they’ve been recently updated.
Update Oct. 1 12:53pm CT: One of the map designers Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling has revealed that Cache will be released in October. ESL has teased the release date to be Oct. 10.
