Seven maps are currently played at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments, including Majors and all noticeable competitions. But it’s not always been like that. CS.MONEY here to tell you about the competitive maps that are now in the past.
Tuscan and CPL_Mill
In the distant past, namely in the early and mid-2000s, there existed an organization called Cyberathlete Professional League which held a whole bunch of tournaments until it was closed in 2008.
The CPL’s biggest contribution to the development of CS is still tangible today. The company hired map makers and ordered exclusive works from them, which could only be played at CPL tournaments. One such work is formally still alive today: it’s the Mirage map, which was originally dubbed CPL_Strike.
Apart from CPL_Strike, there was another map that enjoyed huge popularity among the veterans — CPL_Mill. This map was so good that an organization called CEVO hired its creator to create a clone of this map. That’s how Tuscan appeared — the best tournament map in CS 1.6 according to many pros.
The main appeal of the map is its complex structure. The spawn locations of attack and defense are connected by five passages, each of them also leading to one of the sites. In the middle of the map, there are two “bridge” passages for quick repositioning. To add to it, the spacious passages alternate with shelters and obstacles. With all that said, the map is perfectly suitable for both tactical and “lone wolf” play styles.
But there is a downside too. Valve isn’t particularly interested in adding new maps to the game. Inferno, Dust 2, Mirage, Train, and Nuke were already played in the very first Major — and they are still used for tournaments today. All told, only nine maps have been played in all the Majors over the years! The last time when brute, the creator of Tuscan, updated his work in the Workshop was back in May 2015.
It’s unlikely that this map will ever appear in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Season
Another map from the past. Season was very popular in the times of Counter-Strike: Source and was even played at the first tournaments after the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The first version of the map came to light in 2007. It entered CS:GO in February 2013.
The map didn’t stay in the tournament pool for long. In December of the same year, the first Major — DreamHack Winter 2013 — took place which established the “official” map set, Season not included in it.
In October 2014, an updated version of the map was added to the Workshop. Valve included it in the map list for such operations as Vanguard and Bloodhound. Subsequently, however, everyone forgot about Season and it never appeared in the game again.
Season met a mixed reception in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community. Its size, complex structure, and a number of strong rivals in the Workshop prevented Season from becoming one the community’s favorites. Neither Valve nor FMPONE, who was responsible for the remake, didn’t show any interest in making improvements to the map, and it was put on the shelf.
Cobblestone
This is one of the oldest maps in the entire Counter-Strike series. It was first introduced back in Counter-Strike Beta 6.5. In 2013, it was added to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and at ESL One: Cologne 2014, it was included in the Major map pool.
The last Major to feature this map was the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. At FACEIT Major: London 2018, an updated version of Dust 2 replaced it in the map pool.
In addition to its age, Cobblestone has two other advantages. The first is that this map’s case contains a legendary skin, AWP Dragon Lore. Now that the map seems to have left the Major map pool for good, there will be no more new “Dragon Lores.” They are limited by the number of unopened cases and skins from The Cobblestone Collection that can be used for crafting.
The second: Cobblestone was the most spacious map among those played in the Major. It was both a plus and a minus. On the one hand, such spaces forced the teams to play differently, but on the other hand, the defense had no chances to get control over their half of the map.
After its exit from the map pool, Cobblestone was supposed to undergo improvements. In October 2018, a special version of the map was released for Halloween, but after that, the work stopped. The development team prioritized Vertigo instead, adding it to the official map set.
Tuscan, Season, and Cobblestone are forgotten tournament maps from CS 1.6, Counter-Strike: Source, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive respectively. For various reasons, they were jettisoned from the tournament map pool and are unlikely to enter it again in the future.
Fortunately, all of them are available in the Workshop, so you can always get together with friends and play some competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive which is never to be seen at professional competitions.
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