As of 19 October 2026, the CS2 Active Duty map pool has seven maps: Ancient, Anubis, Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage and Nuke. That is the pool for Premier Season Five, which has been running since 8 July 2026, and it is also the pool professional tournaments are played on. Below you’ll find what the map pool actually is, how maps are picked in Premier since September, how the pool has changed over recent seasons and where to play the maps that aren’t in it.
What the map pool and Active Duty are
Valve maintains an official set of competitive maps called Active Duty. That is the map pool people mean when they talk about Premier or the pro scene. Premier, the mode with a single CS Rating number and a map pick before each match, is played on Active Duty maps, and so are professional tournaments.
Competitive works differently. You choose the map yourself and you have a separate rank on every map, so you can sit at one rank on Mirage and another on Nuke. You get a rank on a map once you have the required number of wins on it. Our guide to ranks and Premier covers this in detail.
The active map pool on 19 October 2026
This line-up applies to the current Premier season (Season Five), as Valve announced in the patch notes. Between 8 July and the last patch before we went to press (14 October 2026), Valve did not change Active Duty. Valve has not yet announced when the pool will change next.
| Map | Note as of 19 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Ancient | an enhanced version of the CS:GO map |
| Anubis | back in Active Duty since 21 January 2026 (replaced Train) |
| Cache | the newest addition, in Active Duty since 8 July 2026 |
| Dust II | in Active Duty since 25 April 2024, kept close to the original in CS2 |
| Inferno | unchanged in the pool since April 2024 |
| Mirage | kept close to the original in CS2 |
| Nuke | an enhanced version of the CS:GO map |
When CS2 arrived, Valve reworked its maps at three levels. Dust II and Mirage are so-called Touchstone maps, meant to stay as close to the original as possible. Nuke and Ancient received upgrades, and some maps outside today’s pool, such as Italy and Overpass, were rebuilt from the ground up.
How the map is picked in Premier
Since 22 September 2026, Premier uses a new map selection. Previously, teams banned maps until one was left, which is still how most older guides describe it. This is how it works now:
- Team one picks one map.
- Team two picks two maps.
- Team one picks the fourth and final map.
- The game randomly draws one of those four maps, and that’s where you play.
It pays to be comfortable on at least two or three maps, because there’s no guarantee your pick will be the one drawn. A match lasts up to 24 rounds (MR12). At 12:12 there is one six-round overtime, and at 15:15 a Premier match ends in a draw.
How the map pool has changed recently
Most changes landed with the start of a new Premier season. These are the swaps since spring 2024:
- 25 April 2024 – Dust II replaced Overpass.
- 28 January 2025 – Train replaced Vertigo.
- 16 July 2025 – Overpass replaced Anubis.
- 21 January 2026 – Anubis replaced Train.
- 8 July 2026 – Cache replaced Overpass.
Cache’s return is the biggest change of the year. The map was last in Active Duty in 2019, when Vertigo took its place. The CS2 remake is the work of Shawn “FMPONE” Snelling. According to Valve’s announcement, it came back to the game on 28 April 2026, first in Casual, Competitive, Deathmatch and Retakes, and joined Active Duty with Season Five on 8 July 2026.
Maps and modes outside Active Duty
There are plenty of other maps in the game. Community maps rotate with the seasons: on 8 July 2026 Warden, Stronghold, Alpine and Sanctum left, while Boulder, Fachwerk and Shelter arrived in Competitive, Casual and Deathmatch, and Debris and El Dorado in Wingman. The selection will change again with the next season.
Besides the classic modes, CS2 has Retakes (since 22 October 2025), a 4v3 mode that starts after the bomb is planted, and since 22 September 2026 Rush, a fast 3v3 mode played across randomly drawn arenas. You can subscribe to community maps on the Steam Workshop and play them from the Workshop Maps section or on community servers. Our guide to FACEIT and servers explains how.
How to learn a new map
Every map has established position names that players use to communicate. We deliberately don’t list callouts here. The better way to learn them is in the game itself, where Map Guides show them to you.
Map Guides are interactive walkthroughs of a map. Every Active Duty map has an official guide, and you can subscribe to more on the Steam Workshop. Since 21 January 2026 you can load them in Casual and Retakes, and since 18 March 2026 in Competitive too, in a more limited version during the first five rounds of each half.
Since 8 July 2026 a new C4 explosion applies on every map. The blast spreads out from the bombsite, weakens around corners and doesn’t pass through walls, and the health in your HUD shows how much you’ll have left after it goes off. How buying and money work is explained in our economy guide. If you’re new, start with what CS2 is and how it differs from CS:GO.
Join our Discord to find teammates for Premier or Wingman. Hop into the GamersTogether Discord and tell us which maps you play most.
FAQ
As of 19 October 2026, Active Duty has seven maps: Ancient, Anubis, Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage and Nuke. That applies to Premier Season Five, running since 8 July 2026.
It returned on 28 April 2026 in Casual, Competitive, Deathmatch and Retakes, and joined Active Duty on 8 July 2026 with the start of Season Five, replacing Overpass.
Since 22 September 2026, team one picks one map, team two picks two and team one picks the last. The game then randomly draws one of those four maps to play on.
Yes, in Competitive. There you pick the map yourself and hold a separate rank on each one. In Premier the map is chosen together with your opponents and then drawn at random.
The safest way is Map Guides inside the game. Every Active Duty map has an official guide, and you’ll find more on the Steam Workshop.
Information verified on 19 October 2026. The map pool changes with the seasons, so check our CS2 guides for more.