The title of the most hated map belongs to Vertigo. Casual players, pros, commentators, and analysts criticise Vertigo regularly. They call for it to be replaced with literally anything else, or better yet, just removed entirely from Counter-Strike 2. But why? The CS.MONEY Blog explores the reasons behind this disdain.
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Vertigo Replaced Cache
Vertigo is one of the oldest maps in the CS series, dating back to the earliest versions of the game. However, in the CS 1.6 era, it wasn’t particularly popular and certainly wasn’t played in major tournaments. This remained the case for a long time—right up until 2019. That year, Valve removed Cache from the active duty map pool and added Vertigo, making it a regular feature in Major tournaments.
The problem lies in the replacement itself:
- Cache had become somewhat stale but was still actively played. It was a staple pick in tournaments, and finding a match on Cache in matchmaking was never an issue.
- The version of Vertigo that was added to the map pool was simply not polished enough.
This scenario created an immediate backlash against the new map—it replaced a balanced and familiar map, albeit an overused one, with something half-baked.
A Gimmick That Falls Flat
Vertigo has a unique feature: you can fall off the map. Sure, you can take fall damage on any map in the pool, but Vertigo is the only one where you can easily and quickly plummet to your death. While this gimmick might sound fun, in practice, it’s awful.
Yes, it’s cool to “run boost” a teammate across the map, but when that trick fails, the consequence isn’t just damaging or giving away your position—it’s losing a teammate entirely. This imbalance between risk and reward ruins the map’s unique trait. Another strike against Vertigo.
Verti-GO A
In CS2 maps, certain key areas become focal points of contention. Battles for these spots are intense, and their outcomes often decide the round. For example, the A long on Dust 2 or the banana on Inferno. If attackers dominate banana early with minimal losses, defenders often have no choice but to go saving.
On Vertigo, however, the problem is that the primary battleground is A site. Most rounds revolve around pushing up the ramp and fighting defenders on this single point. Round after round. After round. After round… This makes watching pro matches on Vertigo uninteresting quickly, and if you play the map, you grow tired even faster.
Too Many Changes In Too Little Time
In the Counter-Strike series, updates are a rarity. The last Major was played on Dust 2, a map older than half the tournament participants. And everyone’s okay with this stagnation, especially if it’s occasionally spiced up with small tweaks: a bench here on Mirage, a couple of crates on Dust 2, and slightly wider corridors on Nuke. These slow but steady adjustments keep the community satisfied.
With Vertigo, the story was entirely different. While maps like Mirage or Dust 2 were polished with fine brushstrokes, Vertigo was painted over with a brush wielded by a raver. In less than five years, the map underwent four significant overhauls. By CS2 standards, this is an incredibly fast and frequent rate of change. The meta on Vertigo barely had time to settle before it had to be rebuilt from scratch.
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Too Much Verticality
The final reason for hating Vertigo is its layout. CS2 struggles with multi-level maps. Because of its two-story design, Vertigo feels like two maps crammed into one—and neither of them is good. A similar situation exists on Nuke, but it compensates with a massive outdoor area, and rotations between sites take only five seconds.
On Vertigo, the two-story structure makes it difficult for attackers to take a site. They must check not only left and right but also above and below. Defenders also struggle, as there are no positions that feel comfortable to hold. And that’s not just us saying it—it’s straight from FaZe Clan star Robin “ropz” Kool.
Vertigo is like a bull in a china shop. It barged into the map pool, underwent constant changes, and failed to bring anything new or interesting. Now, five years of well-deserved hate later, the community can only hope that in 2025, Valve will finally remove this map from the competitive scene.
