Overpass Returns to CS2’s Official Map Pool. Which Teams Are Pulling Their Hair Out, and Who Benefits from the Latest Update?
A week before the first major tournament after the summer break (IEM Cologne 2025), VALVE released an update that shuffled the cards for many teams. Anubis was removed from the active map pool, while the old-timer Overpass returned to the game after minor changes related to stable FPS. Undoubtedly, this became shocking news for many organizations, but now they have no choice but to accept the rules of the game. Therefore, in this article, we decided to go through the top teams and analyze how this change will affect their future.
A Bit About Other Gameplay Changes
Before proceeding to analyze Overpass, I’d like to say a few words about other updates. They mainly concern the defensive side, which once again proves that developers aren’t very satisfied with the “balance” of sides after transitioning to CS2. It’s not excluded that Overpass’s return may be related to this same factor, as it’s no secret that Overpass has always been one of the most CT-oriented maps. Anubis, on the other hand, was considered easier to attack, though recently it also gained balance.
Previously, for CT they already reduced the cost of M4A4, incendiary grenade, improved FAMAS, and tried to make defensive play more comfortable. Now the incendiary grenade ignites faster, and for each killed terrorist, the counter-terrorists will receive an additional $50 as a team bonus. Let’s see how this works in practice, but the trend of improvements for CT is very clear.
Who Is Disappointed by the Map Pool Changes?
Let’s first talk about teams that are clearly not happy that Anubis was removed from the competitive map pool. Interestingly, 3 teams from the top-5 immediately enjoyed playing Anubis.
Vitality
- Win rate over the last 6 months – 66.7%
Of course, Vitality currently has beautiful statistics on any map, as the guys are still on an insane win streak in BO3 matches. But Anubis was indeed very comfortable for apEX and company, where mezzi practically solo-held B-site, and ZywOo ran around terrorizing opponents across the entire map. Many repeatedly tried to pick this map against Vitality hoping they don’t play it often in official matches, but time and again suffered fiasco. Vitality’s last defeat on Anubis was in early March against MIBR at ESL Pro League S21.
Will this change be the factor that ends their era? Unlikely, but it will definitely cause extra inconvenience. The team consists of quite experienced players for whom Overpass isn’t something unknown, and the map hasn’t changed much since its departure.
Aurora
- Win rate over the last 6 months – 60.0%
The Turks played Anubis 25 times in the last six months, and in the community they were long known as the “kings” of this map. Anubis became their path to the top of the world rankings, as it was impossible to beat them on this map and matches practically always started with a predetermined 0:1 for opponents if they didn’t ban it.
Ironically, VALVE previously put the team in a similar position with Vertigo when they dominated most opponents on it. But despite all the statistics and past achievements, recently Anubis stopped being that same “signature” map and the guys often lost on it, even though it was almost always close scores. Let’s see what happens with Aurora next, but it feels like they might experience certain difficulties in the first tournaments.
FaZe
- Win rate over the last 6 months – 56.2%
Karrigan’s team continues to face difficulties. After the organization showed its weakness with the s1mple buyout, VALVE additionally removes their best map from the pool. Undoubtedly, recent victories on this map were thanks to s1mple, but either way, FaZe killed a lot of time to stop lagging behind others on Anubis.
Overpass’s return could be positive news, as the veterans definitely know it very well, but when they remove a map you picked yourself – it can’t leave positive emotions.
The MongolZ
- Win rate over the last 6 months – 46.7%
Yes, the win rate isn’t the highest, but if we draw parallels with the Turkish collective, recently the Mongolians actually showed good progress on this map. We’re sure it will be unpleasant for them to say goodbye to Anubis after hard work on improving their game. Also, the guys practically didn’t get to play Overpass at tier-1 level and it’s unknown how much experience they have to immediately start feeling comfortable on it.
We don’t doubt that with their work ethic they’ll eventually bring it to the needed level, but initially it might be tough. Perhaps The MongolZ will finally have a clear permaban, but again, this will only weaken their flexibility. Previously they played all maps and could base decisions not on their weak spot, but simply ban the opponent’s strong map, which gave many advantages. The main intrigue for the Mongolians – will they be ready to abandon this approach or will they practice Overpass.
MIBR, paiN, FURIA, G2
The Brazilians haven’t recovered from Vertigo when Anubis hit them. Brazilian collectives were always comfortable on maps where attack could be considered the dominant side. You definitely can’t say the same about Overpass, and youngsters like snow and molodoy might have only entered this map a couple of times.
The Samurais will have restructuring and now this is the least of their problems, but in the old lineup they looked very confident on Anubis, and during m0NESY’s time they were among the best in the world.
Who Won't Feel or Will Even Welcome the Changes?
Here we won’t describe each team in detail, as they all have practically the same reason: permaban, uncomfortable to play, or the roster had poor results on Anubis.
- Permaban: MOUZ, Falcons, Astralis
- Second ban: Spirit, NAVI
Why is permaban good? First – nothing changed for these teams and they can simply continue banning Overpass instead of Anubis. Second – this is groundwork for the future, that they can either start playing all 7 maps like The MongolZ or abandon the least comfortable map in favor of Overpass without significant quality losses. Now everyone will study Overpass anew, so they’ll be in more or less equal conditions. Teams are unlikely to do this already at IEM Cologne, but will definitely think about such an option later.
The situation with the second ban isn’t so clear-cut, but using Spirit and NAVI as examples – both teams performed well on Overpass in their time and are most likely not against such a change at all.
