The Current Active-Duty Pool
Dust 2 T-favoured 51/49
The most iconic map in Counter-Strike. Simple three-lane structure, mid-heavy control, T-favouring economy on the long-side push.
Mirage Balanced 50/50
The most-played competitive map in pro CS2. Palace vs. connector on A, apartments vs. window on B.
Inferno Slight CT lean
Narrow chokepoints, banana-side kingmaker rounds, molotov-heavy default utility. Historically CT-favoured; CS2's wider corners have flattened that slightly.
Anubis Balanced, T-lean
Newest map in the active pool. Water-heavy layout, elevated A site, tight connector rotations. Meta still shifting quarter-over-quarter.
Nuke Strong CT lean
The vertical map. Two bombsites stacked. Historically the most CT-favoured map in the pool; specialist teams built entire seasons around it.
Overpass Slight CT lean
Sewer/connector triangle with monster room and A short. Requires disciplined utility usage and confident retakes.
Ancient Balanced
Tight corridors, cave A site, mid-focused. Small map with intense info-gathering demands.
Train Strong CT lean
Recently returned to the map pool. Two rail-cars-heavy bombsites. Historically favours CT with strong AWPers.
How the Veto Works
Before every professional CS2 series, teams pick and ban maps from the active pool. In a best-of-three format, the sequence is:
- Higher-seed (or coin-toss winner) bans map 1
- Other team bans map 2
- Higher-seed picks map 3 (their strongest map they think opponent will not ban)
- Other team picks map 4
- Higher-seed bans map 5
- Other team bans map 6
- Remaining map is the decider
In best-of-one it's six alternating bans until one map is left. Understanding a team's permaban (the map they always ban regardless of opponent) and their strongest pick tells you which two-thirds of a series is likely playable and which map is heavily unlikely.
CT vs T Side Balance
The active-duty pool leans slightly CT-sided on average across all maps at pro level, though the balance shifts with each Valve update:
- Historically strongly CT-favoured: Nuke, Train, Overpass
- Balanced or slightly CT-favoured: Mirage, Inferno, Ancient
- Historically slightly T-favoured: Dust 2, Anubis
Side-balance influences round-total (over/under) betting markets. A map where CT wins 60% of pistols and defaults will often close 16–10 to 16–12 — typically under the 26.5 or 27.5 round total line. Read our betting strategy guide for how to price map-specific side balance into your bets.
What Changed From CS:GO Maps to CS2
Every CS:GO map that returned in CS2 has been rebuilt in the Source 2 engine. The core layouts are preserved, but subtle geometry, lighting and readability changes affect the meta:
- Wider corners on many chokepoints (Inferno's banana, Mirage's A ramp) — slightly punishes tight CT holds that relied on close angles.
- Real-time global illumination in Source 2 creates dramatically different visibility depending on time of day per map.
- Rebuilt smoke behaviour means smoke lineups from CS:GO still land in the right spots, but the volumetric CS2 smokes react to HE grenades, molotovs and gunfire.
Read our full CS2 vs CS:GO comparison for everything that changed between versions.
