Valve has released a new update for Counter-Strike 2 that changes a minor feature near the counter-terrorist spawn on the game's most popular map, Dust 2. According to the release notes, the developer “changed the crate stack outside the CT spawn, toward Bombsite A.” which doesn't sound like much, but what the heck, it makes me cry.

The change was made just to the left of the CT spawn, below the Dust 2 raised A bombsite, where previously players could boost each other from here to an area called the catwalk. Valve has changed the placement of crates in this area so that other players location without having to boost it, so that one player can easily access this shortcut with a small jump.

In other words, this change makes common tactics early in the round easier to execute (especially when playing with randoms), and on top of that, it opens up this shortcut throughout the length of the round. This will make a huge difference in all situations. Most obviously, it would be a game changer in certain recapture situations, allowing both defenders and attackers new routes to catwalk from different positions. This all makes sense, and no doubt there are other implications that I have yet to see.

You can see this change in action in the following video from the official CS2 account.

However, Counter-Strike 2 fans seem to be a rather grumpy bunch at the moment. Personally, I think CS2 is great and I play it as regularly as I do CS:GO, but there is no denying that the content explosion that some have been hoping for since launch has not arrived: the lack of things like new operations and new weapons is painfully felt, and the game still a target for cheaters and scammers.

“The more I think about it, the angrier I get,” says COYGodzilla. “Against a good team, D2 would be very oppressive on the T side (which it already would be without the long spawn RNG). They will be trapped in a tunnel and have to deal with strong pushes and utils in the mids and not be able to get out for long (especially in rounds without long spawns).

“They just broke Dust 2 wtf,” Loosecun laments, but other posts don't even reach that level of civility. They're fixing a problem that doesn't exist, “says TalhaOne.” There are plenty of people who say old classics like “Valve is killing this game. Others disagree on whether it's a buff or a nerf. The most appalling are those who post on the Counter-Strike forums hours after a minor change to Counter-Strike and say “this game hasn't been good since ‘03-’05”. Well, it looks like someone who has been playing for the past 20 years anyway.

I should say that many players are bringing more perspective to this change, and some players have made the very good point that this is far from the first time Dust 2 has been tweaked, and far from the biggest change in map history.

“Let's see how it plays first. Are you guys allergic to change lol,” NexxZT wrote. Literally, when has Valve ever made a change to a map that didn't work at all?” people complained about Mirage window jumps, the Vertigo A site, and many other things. Guess what?

I'm going to do some valuable research of my own tonight, but I keep saying minor changes because I really do feel that, while we'll definitely see some new activity around the A site, the Dust 2 play experience won't be much different than it was last night.

From the outside looking in, it feels like Valve has spent the past year focusing on building the foundation of Counter-Strike 2, prioritizing stability and minor tweaks, and changing elements of the most popular maps fits that pattern. However, outside of a launch interview with PCG, the team rarely communicates its intentions in advance. Even though it is a natural part of Valve's game, the Internet abhors a blank space. So the anger over this change feels to me like a symptom of a broader malaise among some in the community.

It is the latter complaint that Valve ultimately needs to address with Counter-Strike 2, and until then, we'll be grumbling about almost everything else Valve does with this game. But, no kidding, even that won't change for long; as long as Counter-Strike players are playing Counter-Strike, every molehill can become a mountain.