Vertigo is Dead, Long Live Train

It’s true. Vertigo is dead. Valve has finally given it the mercy-killing it deserved in the latest CS2 update, which replaces the map in Premier mode after its recent debut in pro play at BLAST Bounty Spring. Good riddance, I say. It has been a properly miserable experience for some time, an exercise in sheer masochism for those who pick into it.

No amount of changes can save Vertigo

Vertigo may have been a breath of fresh air when it came into the Active Duty map pool back in 2019, but it had long overstayed its welcome. Even as long ago as 2023, Valve’s relationship with us players regarding the map felt like a loveless marriage in every sense.

“We’ll make some changes, and it will get better, I promise,” Valve would say, as it made more pointless ‘fixes’ that only seemed to make things worse. All the while, we’re cheating on Valve with Anubis, and it knows it.

I’ll say one thing. Valve has been committed to making Vertigo work. The most recent set of changes came in May 2024, with massive alterations to the A-site proving to be a final roll of the dice in a failed endeavor. It all felt like Valve was meandering to an inevitable conclusion – Vertigo’s removal from the Active Duty map pool. Once the pros gave up on the map, it was game over.

Now that Valve has finally ridden Premier mode of its worst map, we can only hope it stays gone for some time, if not permanently. When you have Cache in development from FMPONE, Overpass waiting in the wings, and Cobblestone sitting right there, there’s absolutely no reason we should see Vertigo in any capacity for a long time.

Long live Train

Coming back into the pool is the revamped version of Train. It’s not the same Train we know and love from CS:GO, with Valve removing a lot of the verticality that made the earlier versions so iconic.

To use a similar analogy as above, it’s like going back to an ex. You’ll probably realize that all the problems that led to it not working out in the first place are still prevalent, but you’re so blinded by nostalgia that you’re certain this time, it will be different. For now, I’m leading the “Long live Train!” charge, but ask me again in three months’ time and I might feel differently.