- 7 Active Duty maps
- Cache in, Overpass out
- Premier: pick 2, draw 1 of 4
- FACEIT added Vertigo
The CS2 map pool decides what you practise, what you can be forced to play in Premier and which Competitive ranks you can earn. It changed twice this season: Valve rotated the Active Duty pool when Premier Season 5 began on 8 July 2026, and on 22 September 2026 it rebuilt how a Premier match chooses its map. Here is the current pool, how the new map vote works, what changed in Competitive and Wingman, and every Active Duty swap since 2024 — all from Valve's own release notes, checked 2026-10-15.
Short answer: the Premier Season 5 Active Duty pool is Ancient, Anubis, Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke
— Cache came in and Overpass left on 8 July 2026. Since 22 September 2026, each team votes to pick two maps, then one of the four is drawn at random, instead of
banning down to one map. In July Valve also added Boulder, Fachwerk, Shelter to Competitive, Casual and Deathmatch,
removed Warden, Stronghold, Alpine, Sanctum from every mode and added Debris and El Dorado to Wingman.
Key takeaways
- Seven maps, one swap: Cache replaced Overpass when Season 5 started.
- Premier now picks, then draws: two picks per team, one of the four played. Be ready on at least four maps.
- Competitive is wider than Active Duty — it also carries community maps, and every map has its own Skill Group.
- Ancient, Inferno, Mirage and Nuke survived every Active Duty swap since April 2024 — the safest maps to master.
- FACEIT added Vertigo as an optional Season 9 map from 5 August 2026.
The seven Active Duty maps
| Map | In the Active Duty pool |
|---|---|
| Ancient | Throughout — untouched by every swap since April 2024 |
| Anubis | Back since 21 January 2026 (Season 4 start) |
| Cache | New — added 8 July 2026 (Season 5 start) |
| Dust II | Back since 25 April 2024 |
| Inferno | Throughout — untouched by every swap since April 2024 |
| Mirage | Throughout — untouched by every swap since April 2024 |
| Nuke | Throughout — untouched by every swap since April 2024 |
Active Duty is Valve's competitive core: it's the pool Premier plays and the one tournaments follow. Valve never lists all seven in one post — the list above follows from its swap notes (below), and match sites list the same seven.
How Premier picks the map now
Until September a Premier lobby banned maps down to a single one. Valve's "Rush Hour" post of 22 September 2026 changed that: teams “will vote to pick two maps each”, and after all four are picked one map is drawn at random. Valve's reasoning was that a team that spends time developing strategies on a map should get a chance to benefit from it.
- You will play maps you didn't pick. Your two picks are only half the draw, so a one-map player loses most of the time to the dice.
- Four solid maps is the new minimum. Two of your own plus the two the enemy is most likely to pick — the ones every team plays.
- Valve didn't say how the pick order works or whether both teams can pick the same map, so treat any detailed guide to those as guesswork.
Competitive, Wingman and the community maps
Competitive mode isn't limited to Active Duty. Valve added Boulder, Fachwerk, Shelter to Competitive, Casual and Deathmatch on 8 July 2026, and took Warden, Stronghold, Alpine, Sanctum out of every mode the same day. Wingman gained Debris and El Dorado. Valve also tests maps in Competitive before promoting them: both Train (November 2024) and Cache (April 2026) were playable in Competitive months before they joined Active Duty.
That matters for your rank because Competitive keeps a separate Skill Group on every map: a map shows its rank after 2 wins on it. A new map is a fresh ladder — see CS2 Competitive ranks explained.
Every Active Duty swap since 2024
| Date | In | Out |
|---|---|---|
| 25 April 2024 | Dust II | Overpass |
| 29 January 2025 | Train | Vertigo |
| 15 July 2025 | Overpass | Anubis |
| 21 January 2026 | Anubis | Train |
| 8 July 2026 | Cache | Overpass |
The pattern is clear enough to plan around: each new Premier season so far has opened with exactly one change. Season 5's end isn't announced (our estimate is January 2027 — see the Season 5 guide), and Valve gives no notice of the next swap, so the maps above are the ones to learn now.
The FACEIT pool
FACEIT runs its own pool on top of Active Duty: after a community vote with almost 100,000 votes, it added Vertigo as an optional extra map from 5 August 2026, and it counts for Elo like any other map. FACEIT says non-Active-Duty maps will keep rotating through votes in future seasons — what Season 10 brings is in the FACEIT Season 10 guide.
Don't want the map draw to cost you rating? Our boosters play every Active Duty map — a
Premier boost climbs your CS Rating whatever comes up, and a
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Sources
- Valve — 8 July 2026 update and "Season 5, Armory, and More" (Premier Season Five began; Cache in, Overpass out; Boulder, Fachwerk and Shelter added; Warden, Stronghold, Alpine and Sanctum removed from all modes; Debris and El Dorado in Wingman)
- Valve — "Rush Hour", 22 September 2026 (pick two maps each, one of four drawn at random)
- CS2 release notes (Active Duty swaps of 25 April 2024, January 2025, July 2025 and 21 January 2026; Train and Cache in Competitive before Active Duty; two wins per map since 25 June 2024)
- FACEIT — Season 9 map vote FAQ (Vertigo, optional, counts for Elo). Checked 2026-10-15.
All free tools: calculators, percentiles & season countdowns →
FAQ
Common questions
What maps are in the CS2 Active Duty pool?
Seven for Premier Season 5: Ancient, Anubis, Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage and Nuke. Valve added Cache and removed Overpass on 8 July 2026, when Season 5 began.
How does Premier pick the map now?
Since Valve's Rush Hour update on 22 September 2026 the teams no longer ban down to one map: each team votes to pick two maps, and one of the four picks is drawn at random.
Is Overpass still in CS2?
It left the Active Duty pool, so it isn't played in Premier this season, but it wasn't among the maps Valve removed from every mode. Those were the community maps Warden, Stronghold, Alpine and Sanctum (8 July 2026).
What is the FACEIT map pool in Season 9?
FACEIT added Vertigo as an optional extra map from 5 August 2026 after a community vote with almost 100,000 votes; it counts for Elo like any other map, and FACEIT says non-Active-Duty maps will keep rotating through votes.
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