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Introducing Operation Riptide

Dive into Operation Riptide, available now!

New challenges await, with new maps, new game mode options, and the all-new Private Queues! The Operation mission system has gotten an overhaul--complete your weekly missions and choose from a variety of rewards including new agents, weapon collections, stickers, and patches.

Visit the Operation Riptide website to learn all about the Operation, and check out two new short videos below:

CS:GO - Operation Riptide, "Tomb Stone" CS:GO - Operation Riptide, "Fowl Play"

Release Notes for the Operation Riptide update can be found below:

OPERATION RIPTIDE
Introducing Operation Riptide, featuring new maps, new missions, and new ways to play your favorite game modes! Activate an Operation Riptide Pass and complete your missions to earn rewards including all new agents, weapon collections, stickers, and patches.

GAME MODES
Added:
Private Matchmaking Queues
- Generate a Queue Code and share it with your friends to create a private Premier match on Valve servers
- Or, select one of your Steam Groups and play a match exclusively with other members of that group

Short Competitive
- Added the option to select a preference for match duration in competitive Matchmaking: Short (MR 16), Long (MR 30), or No Preference.

Deathmatch
- Added the option to select Classic Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch (first team to 100 kills wins), and Free-for-all Deathmatch (all players are enemies).

Demolition
- Reduced max rounds to 10 and eliminated half-time team swap.
- Reduced round time
- Adjusted weapon progression

Arms Race
- Adjusted weapon progression
- Players now receive a health-shot after three kills

GAMEPLAY
- Grenades can now be dropped just like weapons.
- Vision after death reduced from 3.0s to 2.0s (vision by headshot reduced from 1.0s to 0.5s).

- Deagle
-- Reduced body damage

- M4A1-S
-- Increased body damage

- Dual Elites
-- Reduced price to $300

- Ballistic Shield
-- Added the Ballistic Shield heavy weapon to the buy menu, currently purchasable by CTs in Casual Hostage map groups.

MAPS
- County has been added to official matchmaking in Danger Zone game mode.

- Basalt and Insertion II have been added to official matchmaking in Competitive, Casual, and Deathmatch game modes.

- Ravine and Extraction have been added to official matchmaking in Wingman game mode.

- The following maps are no longer available in official matchmaking: Grind, Mocha, Pitstop, Calavera, Frostbite.

Dust2:
- Slight visibility tweak from T spawn through mid
- Improved visibility into B back site from upper tunnels

Inferno:
- Made gate at top of banana solid
- Revised 1v1 layout
- Minor bug fixes

Ancient:
- Increased size of plantable area in both bombsites
- Fixed bullet penetration on plywood surfaces
- Further optimizations
- Added 1v1 arenas

The CS:GO Stockholm Major is going ahead, and tickets go on sale next week

It's official - the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive PGL Major 2021 is going ahead in Stockholm, Sweden, and tickets to the live tournament's playoffs go on sale next week. With questions hanging over whether it'd be going ahead in light of the ongoing pandemic in recent months, the PGL has now announced that fans will be able to purchase tickets to the FPS game's live event, which kicks off in Stockholm's Avicii Arena later this year.


"With all indoor restrictions lifted, Avicii Arena is ready to be packed with fans again, for the first time in the last 15 months," the PGL announces in a press release. The organisation also reveals that this year's tournament will have a whopping $2 million prize pool - "the biggest in CS:GO history". Phwoar. The tickets for the Major go on sale on September 22 at 1am PT / 4am ET / 9am BST, which fans can purchase from the arena's site.


The event itself kicks off on October 26 and runs through to November 7, with the playoffs - the part of the Major that fans will be able to buy tickets for to see live - taking place at the arena between November 4 and 7.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

This popular CSGO map brings hostage rescue to the spooky, snowy wilds

CS:GO Stockholm Major looking more likely with coming restrictions lift

CS:GO gets new music kits, with polka-metal and Star Wars game composer's tunes

This popular CSGO map brings hostage rescue to the spooky, snowy wilds

With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive being one of the most-played games on PC every single day, there's always a steady flow of fan-made content rolling onto the FPS game's Steam Workshop. One of the latest, which is picking up a whole lot of five-star ratings, is Exile - a hostage rescue wingman map that takes you somewhere a little different than most of CS:GO's main maps.


Created by CS:GO fans Hi and Kubader, Exile is set in the remote wilds of northwest Canada, in a snowy - and pretty spooky - night-time village with a ton of atmosphere. The story revolves around the rescue of two blokes from the game's Anarchist faction headed into witness protection who have been nabbed by some enemies, who - naturally - need recovering by the map's players.


As pointed out by a bunch of players so far in comments on Exile's Steam Workshop page and YouTube preview clip (below), it's an impressive (and pretty professional) looking creation and something a bit different for fans to try out. The map's covered in frost and snow, and is pretty sparsely populated with buildings, so you're going to have to be careful how you tackle it lest you leave yourself out in the open - though the atmospheric fog should help you to fly a little under the radar of enemies' sights.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

CS:GO Stockholm Major looking more likely with coming restrictions lift

CS:GO gets new music kits, with polka-metal and Star Wars game composer's tunes

CS:GO fan creates "Mirage story mode" with mission, secrets, and extended map