In 2024, the most popular map in Counter-Strike 2 among professionals was Ancient. It took the top spot by a wide margin. But why? Is Ancient a good map for esports, or is it suitable for everyone? And what’s behind its popularity? The CS.MONEY Blog provides answers to these questions.
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Is Ancient a good map in CS2?
The short answer is yes. The map has many advantages and only a few downsides. Let’s start with the benefits:
- Simple structure with three lanes.
- Encourages fast and aggressive play, with action starting from the very first seconds of the round.
- Easy to get started, most nades are intuitively clear.
- High skill ceiling for both individual and team play.
- A successful combination of open and closed spaces, long corridors, and narrow, compact rooms.
One of Ancient’s main advantages is that even without a coordinated team or hundreds of hours of practice, it’s still fun to play. One of the reasons, perhaps the most important, is the centre of the map.
Controlling the middle gives both teams a significant advantage, making it easy to attack the enemy’s back or split both sites for planting the C4. If you add to this the ability to toss grenades into the centre of the map without taking a single step from the start of the round, you get an extremely explosive combination. The fight for mid on Ancient starts in the first seconds of the round, and the team that wins this fight often wins the round.
The downside – the map’s drawbacks. We’ve identified three disappointing features of the map:
- Too much green. Some elements of the map are painted in other colors, like red, but most surfaces are stone and greenery. First, it looks a bit dull. Second, green agents blend into the walls.
- Optimization. The map still remains fairly heavy. It performs worse in terms of frames per second compared to Dust 2, Mirage, and the now-retired Vertigo, and only slightly better than Inferno.
- The attacking side starts in water. Seriously, how can this be? It’s like wet socks in wet shoes. Brrr, all the competitive spirit disappears.
Another controversial feature of the map is the abundance of corners. The attacking side’s movement is hindered by the number of places that need to be checked to advance. However, this can also be seen as a positive. This feature encourages the defence to act more actively instead of camping at the sites.
Which side has the advantage on Ancient?
At the professional level, Ancient is the most balanced battlefield in the game. The win rate between attack and defence is split about evenly, with a slight edge towards the attacking side—about half a percentage point.
In regular matchmaking, the situation is a bit different. The attacking side on Ancient has a distinct, though not huge, advantage. According to statistics from various sources, in matchmaking, the attack wins 51-52% of rounds on Ancient. It can’t be called a decisive advantage, but it exists.
Which is the best map in CS2?
Of course, it’s the one you enjoy the most. But if we rely on cold statistics, the battle for first place is between Ancient and Dust 2. Both maps are popular at all levels of play, well-balanced, and allow for both individual plays and team manoeuvres.
In matchmaking, regardless of the platform, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to play only one map. So, it’s better to learn the basics and most useful tactics on popular maps, such as Mirage. We even have an excellent guide on Mirage nades, which will finally help you get a positive win rate on that map. Be sure to check it out!
