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New CS:GO Update Swaps Train for Ancient in its Competitive Map Pool

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With the end of Operation Broken Fang, Valve has announced the introduction of Ancient to the competitive Active Duty map pool, taking the place of Train.

CS:GO’s Active Duty Map Pool had remained untouched since early 2019 when Vertigo was introduced to replace Cache as it underwent a complete remodelling.

Vertigo would have its Major debut with Starladder Major Berlin of that same year, undergoing some structural changes in the months that would follow as Valve received more and more feedback from players.

Ancient follows its footsteps as a Valve curated map. Shipped alongside Operation Broken Fang, it is heavily inspired by the legendary Counter-Strike map Aztec in terms of aesthetics.

The tropical map has gone through some minor changes up to this stage, but its introduction to the competitive pool is bound to push its limits.

Ancient map pool
(Credit: Valve)

Teams at the highest level will have extra time to improve and adapt Ancient to their map pools, as Valve has confirmed that this first series of Regional Major Rankings (RMR) events will still use the old map pool featuring Train.

However, moving forward it is likely that Ancient will be included in the Valve-sponsored circuit, which will force teams to master this map if they want to secure critical points and reach the ever so tantalizing Stockholm 2021 Major scheduled to take place towards the latter end of the year.

In this new update, Valve has also introduced a subscription service called “CS:GO 360 Stats” that will collect and display your official Competitive and Wingman stats for $0.99 a month.

Finally, to commemorate the end of the tenth CS:GO operation, they released a new case entitled “Snakebite” featuring a new set of 17 community-designed weapon finishes, gave the chicken models a complete makeover and brought in some small map tweaks.