There are often two kinds of gamers that exist in every single title. There are the casual gamers, those who play for fun or only with friends and take enjoyment in simply being able to create new memories with other players. Winning and losing still matter, but usually the true victories are the bonds they made along the way. On the other hand exist the competitive gamers – those who dedicate the time and effort in their daily lives to becoming the best they can be and, in turn, surpassing others in the process. In Counter-Strike, ranks exist as a testament to the effort each player puts into the game. Winning will help improve your rank and put you amongst a higher level of competition whilst losing results in the opposite outcome. With the release of Counter-Strike 2, many Global Offensive players found themselves asking the question: will ranks reset in CS2?
Will CS:GO Ranks Reset in CS2?
The quick answer to this is yes, your ranks earned in Global Offensive will have already been reset upon CS2’s release. The reasoning for this is because there are new matchmaking formats in place, thus creating the need to bring everybody back down to zero. Unlike CS:GO, whose one and only focus for ranked matchmaking was the Competitive mode, CS2 offers two distinct ranked experiences: Competitive and Premier.
Many fans of Global Offensive may recognize Premier as an add fitional pick-and-ban mode in CS:GO’s Competitive category, but the ranking system still followed the traditional Silver to Global Elite progression. Nowadays, Premier is its own category and arguably even more popular than the Competitive mode.
In CS2, Premier serves as a way for players to earn points to measure their progression and climb the ladder on a worldwide leaderboard. One can track their progress compared to others in the same region or just within their own friends list. An average player’s rating in the new Premier Mode sits around 10,000 to 15,000 which is around the Gold Nova or Master Guardian rank from CS:GO, while those that have ratings of above 25,000 are already professional-caliber. One question that came along with the revamped Premier matchmaking is “do CS2 Premier ranks reset?”, to which the answer is yes however it is still not determined when the change will occur. We are currently in Season 1 of the Premier Mode matchmaking and Valve has yet to release a statement on when the next season will take place.
Competitive Mode still exists in CS2 but is much less of a priority for those playing competitively than it used to be. Still, it is a popular choice given that the map selection is less random than playing Premier and it serves as a more casual, laid-back mode for those grinding out the leaderboards. In CS:GO, your competitive rank was the same regardless of what maps you played. Nowadays, Competitive Mode’s ranking system gives you a rank per map, meaning even if you are a Master Guardian Elite on Mirage you can still only have attained Silver 2 on Nuke. Ten wins are needed on each map to gain your starting rank, and from there the same progression from Global Offensive will follow. There are still a total of 18 ranks in CS2’s competitive mode, starting from Silver 1 to The Global Elite.
Benefits of the New Ranking System
A new game called for a revamp in a big way, and changing the ranking system did just that. It gave a new challenge for those eager to improve their skills and introduce new mechanics with a brand new game.
Transparency: In CS2’s Premier, the rating system gives you a straightforward way to measure your progress. It shows you exactly how much your points change after every win or loss, so you can see exactly how you’re getting better. This was one of the biggest changes from CS:GO’s traditional ranking progress where one could only guess when they would take the next step up even after multiple wins in a row.
Map Mastery: The map-based ranking in Competitive mode pushes players to become well-rounded across all maps. This is especially true for the perfectionists of the scene who would become obsessed with hitting their highest peaks on every single possible map instead of simply spamming something they are familiar with such as Mirage or Dust 2.
Fair Matchmaking: Both systems aim to create fairer matches. Competitive Mode, with its map-based ranks, ensures players with similar map knowledge are paired up. A problem with Global Offensive was that players that attained a high rank with a certain distribution of maps would find it hard to adjust or experiment on a newly-introduced battlefield since their MMR would already be high. In Premier Mode, the concept stays the same with Global Offensive’s ranking system in that matches will be found with players around the same amount of points.
Fresh Start: Clearing the slate back to zero would give those who did not achieve their rank goals in Global Offensive another shot to start from nothing and possibly have better stats in the new game. It also gives newer players who either did not dedicate as much time to CS:GO or have just started getting their feet wet in CS2 more options to find out where they want to dedicate their efforts.