In June 2024, Valve released The Real MVP update for CS2 and added five new community-made maps at once: Thera, Mills, Memento, Assembly and Pool Day. It was the first time community maps were added since the game moved to the Source 2 engine. The maps are spread across several modes: Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch, Wingman and Arms Race.
Here is what we know about each of the new maps:
Thera: This map takes place on the volcanic island of Santorini in Greece. Its authors are FMPone and MF_Kitten. The first of them previously participated in work on Cache. It can be played in competitive, casual, or deathmatch mode.
Mills: The setting of this map depicts a small village in the Netherlands. Its author is catfood, author of the Tuscan and Shipped maps. Like the previous one, the map is available in three main modes.
Memento: This map, created by four community members (MadsenFK, ynel, TwiN and g3om), depicts the picturesque coastline of an Italian lake and is only available in Wingman.
Assembly: This Wingman map is far more cramped, with matches played in enclosed spaces, since the setting is a hangar. It was built by four community members: Almaas, Quoting, Thomas and Huvaligen.
Pool Day: This classic Arms Race map will be familiar to anyone who played Counter-Strike 1.6. The original version of the map was created by Squall, and then Leplubodespalin reworked it, adapting it to the updated version of the game. True to its name, one of the most memorable elements of the map is the pool.
Besides the community maps, the update brought other changes. The video settings screen was improved, the MVP panels got a new look, and competitive matchmaking now shows your map stats after two matches on a map instead of ten. Bugs with bombs getting stuck and object boundaries were fixed on Nuke, Vertigo and Anubis. To try the new maps with your friends, see how to launch a map with friends in CS2, and to learn an unfamiliar layout faster, check our guide on what the positions on CS2 maps are called.
Players' hopes for a new operation did not come true at the time: many expected a bigger update for the 25th anniversary of Counter-Strike on June 19, 2024, but it did not arrive. When The Real MVP came out, the community was discussing a possible new case: back in late 2023, players had found a double-bladed knife model in the game files that was not used anywhere yet, and the code hinted at new weapon customization options. To sharpen your aim on any map, see our list of the best aim maps in CS2.
