After weeks of hype and anticipation, Valve officially revealed Counter-Strike 2 earlier today, along with the release of a limited test that pro players, streamers, and a handful of long-term players had access to.
Shroud, who has a long history with the game as a pro player and streamer, was rightfully one of those people. He reacted positively to some of its new features, particularly the user-interface improvements.
One of the most exciting new features is the addition of responsive smoke grenades that adapt to fill spaces and interact with the environment in interesting ways.
S1mple, the best CS:GO player ever, can’t believe how incredible they look, and neither can TimTheTatman, who couldn’t stop yelling and screaming in excitement when he saw them.
Shroud reacted in the same way, initially. He loved the fact grenades can now be used to counter smoke grenades if they explode next to them, causing the smoke to dissipate. But when he saw how bullets can also create holes in them that provide vision, he changed his tune. “What is that? Okay, that…” he scoffed in disbelief during his Twitch stream on March 22. “The nade part is cool. The bullet part is not so cool.”
According to the aimbot, the impact grenades have on them is cool because it works as a pseudo-counter that can last a couple of seconds and requires a level of investment to achieve. Bullets, on the other hand, means everything counters a smoke, and that baffles him. “What’s the fucking point of a smoke?” he added. “I don’t really like that much.”
Despite his concerns about smokes, Shroud is still enthusiastic about the game. So much so, in fact, that he jumped right into CS:GO and started playing it to scratch the itch.
More than 100,000 fans tuned in to watch him return to the game that defined him, and as you’d expect, he put on a show to keep them entertained, downing one foe after another with god-tier reactions like it was nothing.
Whether Valve responds to Shroud’s concerns remains to be seen.
