Competitive mode in CS2 may be getting shorter – but now there’s overtime

Seems like Competitive might be changing for good in CS2

Jack Howarth

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If you’re an avid Counter-Strike player, the chances are you’ve played the competitive game mode. Well, like me, you may have wanted a shorter competitive game, but one that’s a little longer than the “short” already implemented. It seems you will want no more, as Competitive mode in CS2 may be getting shorter.

CS2 competitive mode maybe 3 rounds shorter

According to a reliable Twitter leaker of all things Counter-Strike 2, the new competitive game mode may be 3 rounds shorter in CS2. Aquarius posted the following:

Here are all the changes that Aquarius mentions in their Twitter post:

• From now on Competitive is first to 13 rounds (including Premier)
• Seems like the devs are getting rid of Short Competitive
• Premier matches will have 20s freezetimes, 1 overtime (the game ends as a tie, if you tie the OT), and four 30s timeouts

It is unsure how the wider community will react to this news if it actually gets implemented into Counter-Strike 2, but I for one know I’d be happier with a slightly shorter competitive game. However, I feel revising the length of competitive game modes has more to do with the new overtime implemented.

CS2 overtime has been added

We don’t know much, only what the potential leak tells us, but from what we can see, overtime might be coming to CS2. How this works exactly is a mystery, but we assume that overtime will be a set amount of rounds that take place. We assume the overtime will consist of more than one round as it states in the Twitter post that it’s possible to still tie the game if the overtime is tied.

We don’t know exactly how long overtime will be, but it’ll probably be 6 rounds, as it is In professional CS games. It’s likely for this reason that the overall length of competitive was reduced because 22 possible rounds probably seem excessive. This will be the first time we’ve seen over time in a normal, none-pro competitive game.

The short competitive mode might be out in CS2

It seems as though short competitive may have gone the way of the Dodo, it’s unknown why this change has occurred but according to Leetify’s data taken from 3 million competitive matches between July and August, nearly 50% of players play short competitive matches. So it is unknown how the community will feel about the news.