Valve has announced that the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test is now available to almost every active CS:GO player, signalling that a full release is surely coming very soon.
In the latest update to the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test, Valve announced that they are inviting as many eligible players as possible to join and test out the final few tweaks to the game before it officially launches. To be eligible to be invited you need to have CS:GO Prime status, an active competitive skill group and must have played the majority of their matches in one of the regions where the test is available.
While these criteria may exclude quite a few people who have been looking to get hands-on with the new game, it should include most active CS:GO players. All you need is Prime status, which anyone who paid for the game before it went free to play should have, and an active rank, which most players should have.
In order to download the CS2 Limited Test you’ll need to boot up CS:GO to make sure you have been given access, and then you can download and install the test and start playing.
Also as part of the latest update to the CS2 Limited Test, a new ranking system has been introduced. Known as CS Rating, the new system is designed to be a precise display of your skill in the game and will be shown on regional and worldwide leaderboards. You’ll only be able to impact your CS Rating by playing Premier matchmaking, which is now available in the Limited Test. Premier also has a nice new UI for the pick and ban stage and seems to be the mode that will become the default for many players.
Also on the subject of rankings, skill groups still exist but are now measured on a per-map basis. So you can be Global Elite on Inferno but just a Silver player on Mirage if you suck at it.
Rounding out the new update is the launch of an overhauled Inferno map, one of the most iconic in CS history. The new version certainly looks impressive on CS2, but we will have to wait for people to get a few matches on it under their belt before we know how good it really is to play.
Despite missing the Summer 2023 release window it seems we are now in the final stages of the CS2 Limited Test, with access being opened up to almost all CS:GO players and the introduction of a ranking system it would appear that the game is very close to being finished. As always with Valve there is no word on a new release date, but unless some big issues are found with the new update, you can expect to see CS2 formally launch over the next few weeks.
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