CS2 players are mysteriously getting more Premier rating after Nov. 30 update

Now seems the best time to grind CS2.

Screenshot of when a match is about to start in CS2. It features five Terrorist players.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

CS2 players have reported gaining considerably more Premier rating after winning matches. This is strange considering Valve didn’t mention any matchmaking changes in the Nov. 30 patch notes, but players seem happy either way.

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A video recorded after the Nov. 30 CS2 update shows players gaining nearly 900 and 1,000 Premier rating points after victory. One player also wrote on Reddit they played three games after the latest update and got between 800 and 1,000 points per victory.

The Counter-Strike 2 Premier logo with blue and yellow stripes.
If you’re free this weekend, go play some Premier and climb up on the rankings. Image via Valve

Before the patch, players complained the Premier grind was too brutal as they’d lose between 300 and 500 points per loss and only win around 100 or 150 points per victory. Generally speaking, players had to win three matches to recover the points lost after a loss.

This mysterious change to the way CS2 Premier works was positively received by the community, but it’s unclear why Valve seemingly made these significant adjustments to matchmaking without informing in the patch notes. The last time Valve adjusted CS2’s matchmaking was on Nov. 8. The developer adjusted the algorithm to re-establish Premier rating after a period of inactivity but didn’t mention anything about awarding more Premier rating points per victory.

Nonetheless, this seems like the best time for us to boot CS2 and play some Premier matches. At the time of writing, Valve hasn’t commented on whether the matchmaking change was made on purpose or if Premier is currently bugged. Dot Esports reached out to Valve for comment.

Author
Image of Leonardo Biazzi
Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.