On April 6, 2026, VALVE handed out the final invites to IEM Cologne 2026, and against the backdrop of this news, the community once again started talking about the system's imperfections. In this piece, we'll break down in detail what players and fans are unhappy about, and try to suggest ways to improve the VRS ranking. The Problems 1. Loss
At the beginning of March we already did a similar breakdown, and exactly one month later we're back to analyzing the CS2 market on Steam. In this piece we decided not to touch on items that gained in value, focusing instead specifically on price drops — because that's what makes investors and even regular players the most anxious. When everything
The recent beta update featuring Animgraph 2 was a true explosion for dataminers and the community. Valve completely rewrote third-person animations, dramatically improved first-person model behavior, and optimized CPU and network performance. Immediately after, Gabe Follower, Thour, and other insiders pulled dozens of hints about new features from the game files. These aren't just "social media rumors" — these are
On the night of April 1–2, 2026, VALVE released a separate beta version of the game called animgraph_2_beta. This is no ordinary update and no April Fools' joke — the developers have fully migrated the animation system to a new technology called Animgraph 2. Previously, some first-person animations were already updated in 2025, and now it's time for all third-person
On April 6, 2026, VALVE handed out the final invites to IEM Cologne 2026, and against the backdrop of this news, the community once again started talking about the system's imperfections. In this piece, we'll break down in detail what players and fans are unhappy about, and try to suggest ways to improve the VRS ranking. The Problems 1. Loss of Prestige at Tier-1 Events In the past, every team
At the beginning of March we already did a similar breakdown, and exactly one month later we're back to analyzing the CS2 market on Steam. In this piece we decided not to touch on items that gained in value, focusing instead specifically on price drops — because that's what makes investors and even regular players the most anxious. When everything goes up, the community stays calm, but when prices start
The recent beta update featuring Animgraph 2 was a true explosion for dataminers and the community. Valve completely rewrote third-person animations, dramatically improved first-person model behavior, and optimized CPU and network performance. Immediately after, Gabe Follower, Thour, and other insiders pulled dozens of hints about new features from the game files. These aren't just "social media rumors" — these are real lines of code, libraries, and animations found inside CS2's
On the night of April 1–2, 2026, VALVE released a separate beta version of the game called animgraph_2_beta. This is no ordinary update and no April Fools' joke — the developers have fully migrated the animation system to a new technology called Animgraph 2. Previously, some first-person animations were already updated in 2025, and now it's time for all third-person animations. Key Technical Improvements The new system significantly reduces CPU