Valve officially revealed on March 22 that Counter-Strike 2 is launching this summer, putting an end to all the recent speculation that has risen in the community weeks after journalist Richard Lewis reported that Source 2 was arriving this month for CS:GO.
After Valve released the first CS2 videos, several professional players and content creators watched it and the reactions have been fairly positive, mostly because CS2 indeed looks like a new game in comparison to CS:GO. Valve is changing how movement and shooting will work, remodeling the smoke grenades, and making adjustments or straight up overhauling the maps.
Related: All differences between Counter-Strike 2 and CS:GO
These are the best CS2 reactions from the community, including heavy hitters like s1mple and shroud.
All the best reactions to Counter-Strike 2
G2 captain hates how HE grenades can disrupt smoke grenades on Counter-Strike 2
G2’s CS:GO captain Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen has shared his initial thoughts on CS2 after playing deathmatch, a short match, and practicing on an individual server for 30 minutes. He most notably enjoyed how the developers have improved the game’s sound and gunplay, but it’s not fully on board with smoke grenades temporarily fading after HE explosions because, in his opinion, the fade is currently lasting too much. Overall, though, he’s happy with the update.
“For the game to be in beta and with so many things already working to a point where you don’t twist your toes while playing it, I am actually positive that Valve will nail this one in the end,” HooXi said.
Tarik wants Valve to add more changes soon
Like shroud, Tarik is enjoying CS2 and its new mechanics, but he hopes the developers add more features when the game fully releases this summer.
“I think it’s cool, but like, I hope there’s way more shit coming,” Tarik said. The former professional CS:GO player has pivoted to VALORANT and has become one of the biggest content creators in Riot Games’ FPS.
Shroud has big concerns about one Counter-Strike 2 feature everyone else is hyping up
One major change that CS2 introduces is the shift of smoke grenades. They have been improved to interact with the environment, while also being affected by bullets and HE grenades. And while shroud is really fond of the idea of smokes interacting with nades, he’s not really sold when it comes to bullets. “The nade part is cool. The bullet part is not so cool,” he said during his Twitch stream on March 22.
Twistzz changes his mind about Counter-Strike 2 after playing it
FaZe Clan’s star player Twistzz was skeptical ahead of CS2‘s release and thought people were “overreacting” to Source 2 coming to CS:GO. But after playing CS2 in the limited testing period, he took a U-turn and said the new smoke grenades are capable of changing how the game is played in pro play.
“The open skybox and the new smokes are going to bring a new depth competitively and help the game evolve,” Twistzz said. “The new smokes and molotovs are a big improvement, better visibility for both, almost entirely removing the ability to one-way either one.”
There wasn’t really anything else for Summit1g to say once CS2 arrived, was there?
Every CS:GO player should be familiar with the renowned “1g” moment during DreamHack Open Austin 2016. During the tournament, Summit1g’s team was just one defuse away from securing the map, but the player-now-turned-streamer was too busy with celebrations and ran into a Molotov, eventually killing his own in-game character. His team later lost that game.
Therefore, there probably wasn’t a better thing for Summit1g to say after the announcement of CS2. And we would be lying if we said he doesn’t deserve limited play access.
It’s not just you, even Neymar Jr is begging for Counter-Strike 2 access
A superstar soccer player for Paris-Saint Germain and Brazil, Neymar Jr. is known for spending his free time in CS:GO, often playing alongside some pros like ZywOo and shox. It’s no surprise then that he’s also keen on playing CS2, but he hasn’t been given access to the beta yet and has asked Valve to give it to him. We’ll probably find out on his Twitch whether his request was successful or not.
S1mple doesn’t believe how good the smokes look
The G.O.A.T looked astonished when the casters at ESL Pro League season 17 showed him how the smoke grenades will work in CS2. His first reaction was to think they were trolling, despite some of them having playtested CS2 a while ago at Valve’s headquarters. “Wow, what the fuck,” s1mple told them. “Did you actually try this? I don’t believe it, fuck this.”
A few seconds later, though, they convinced s1mple that the smoke changes are real and the Ukrainian ended up calling for his teammate Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy to check out the new features as well.
Lirik was mesmerized after seeing the announcement
Twitch star Lirik was livestreaming when Valve dropped the CS2 news. A longtime fan of the FPS franchise, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “No fuckin’ way dude, holy shit, it’s real,” Lirik said after watching one of the videos. “Oh my god, holy shit, dude, I am still in disbelief. This is fucking insane.”
TimTheTatman yells after seeing how smoke grenades interact with the scenario
The smoke grenades in CS2 will be dynamic items capable of interacting with objects and the scenario, on top of also fading away temporarily because of gunfire and explosions. What really caught TimTheTatman’s attention, though, is how the smoke grenades will fill the space they’re in. This made Tim yell and lift his arms in a sign of disbelief.
Fl0m reveals who was with him at Valve’s headquarters to test Counter-Strike 2
Veteran player and content creator Erik “fl0m” Flom looked happier than ever on his latest livestream as he could finally reveal he and some other community members were invited to playtest CS2 at Valve’s headquarters. He said he played alongside legendary player GeT_RiGhT and broadcast members Jason “moses” O’Toole, Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill, Alex “Machine” Richardson, Harry “JustHarry” Russell, and Hugo Byron. Fl0m also revealed that the CS2 menu is different than CS:GO’s.
Shroud jumps on Counter-Strike 2’s hype train after spotting a feature from VALORANT
Former CS:GO pro for Cloud9 turned streaming star shroud seems more interested than ever to come back to Counter-Strike. He has been playing CS:GO in the past few days and after today’s CS2 reveal, he spotted one feature that made him remember \ VALORANT, a game he fell in love with after retiring from Valve’s FPS.
There is a kill count bar in CS2’s UI that lightens up once a player gets an ace, which made shroud recall what happens in VALORANT. “Look at this, VALORANT, VALORANT! You guys see that?” shroud said. “This is what I was talking about literally yesterday when we were playing, I was wondering, why is there no like… give me some, give me some fucking gas when I get an ace, instead of just like ‘oh cool dude you killed a few people.’”
Legendary player shox says he’s ready for Counter-Strike 2
One of the most dominant players in CS:GO ovr the past decade, shox, said he’s hyped to play CS2 despite being around the Counter-Strike scene for 21 years.
“I’m playing CS since I’m 9 [and] I’m 30 now,” he said. “I’ve been waiting [for] a new one for years, I’m so fucking hyped and ready for it.”
How to play Counter-Strike 2
If you, like these professional players and streamers, are eager to try out CS2, you can check if Valve has selected you for the limited test and play it before it launches worldwide this summer.
