IEM Katowice will be completed on a new patch
Usually, it happens that if a patch is released for a particular discipline during a tournament, it doesn’t affect the event itself because participants always play the event on a closed version of the latest patch. However, the recent update for CS2 has drastically changed the professionals’ opinion.
The largest update since the release of Counter-Strike 2 was released yesterday, and it included several important gameplay changes to the shooter. This became the reason why professional players, who are currently competing in the playoffs of IEM Katowice 2024, unanimously voted to finish the event on the latest patch.
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Participants in the playoffs decided that they would play on the new patch
Today, ESL announced that the teams participating in the playoffs at IEM Katowice have decided that the playoff stage will be played on the latest update after the tournament organizer “gathered feedback” from the participating teams.
This decision was made considering the start of the upcoming European RMR event next week, which will determine the teams participating in the first CS2 Major in Copenhagen. This update includes several new and important gameplay changes, so the teams want to play on the “fresh” version of the game.
Changes that prompted players to vote like this
The developer has put a lot of effort into improving smoke grenades, as they now cast shadows, while rendering and animation have been enhanced. These new shadows make it easier for opponents to identify enemy models within smokes and in certain angles and spots.
Another major change is the revamped “peeker’s advantage,” which illogically rewarded kills to those who wide peeked rather than those who controlled angles or specific points on the map. Now, the attacker’s spawn time has been reduced by a whopping 16 milliseconds, thus undoubtedly reducing the number of situations where the attacker gains an advantage.
These are quite significant gameplay changes in CS2, but considering how crucial the RMR qualifiers are for any of the teams, it makes sense for them to vote in favor of playing on the new update. They want to start “feeling out” the new changes now without wasting any time.
In addition to wanting to gain more experience from working on the new update, it’s also interesting that this is one of the few instances where players directly prefer a new update during a tournament. The reduction in peeker’s advantage and changes to smoke grenades, among other updates, have generally been positively received by the majority of players.
