The Worst Change to the Worst Map Ever (By Mauisnake)

Met with scorn, ire, and a vocal loving minority, de_vertigo has been a point of contention for the entire Counter-Strike community since its inclusion into Global Offensive’s Active Duty on March 21, 2019, taking the place of de_cache. As of May 2024, Valve has made two meta-shifting changes: opening up the elevator wall and adding a catwalk on the outside of A. Despite the fact that Vertigo has proven to be a polarizing map in history, that sentiment is shifting towards a near-unanimous desire to remove it from the pool.

Vertigo has served as the battleground for two of the greatest upsets in Major history. The first was when Astralis surprise-picked it over Team Liquid in the 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major in the quarterfinals. 2018’s team of the year, the era-defining Astralis, faced what may have been the best fragging rifle core of all time, Team Liquid. Both teams had an Intel Grand Slam under their belts at this point, but Team Liquid’s was achieved in a record-breaking 63 days compared to Astralis’ 200-plus. Despite the storied legacy we remember of Astralis, this was during a down period for them. Astralis had not been in a Grand Final since May, in a losing effort to ENCE five months prior. Liquid, on the other hand, was on a 6 LAN win streak. Not a 6 map win streak, not a 6 series win streak, a 6 LAN win streak. They were the clear favorites to win this match along with the Major.

In the veto, Sean Gares mentioned that Astralis could look for Inferno, given that it was one of their home maps at the time. Thorin remarked that Nuke would be a daring pick. Then Vertigo shocked the world. Both Sean and Thorin agreed that this was a proclamation that Astralis saw themselves as the underdog. The live odds even showed 1.87 favorites for Team Liquid and 1.89 for Astralis. The hype was building.

In rounds where Astralis had any significant buy, the Danes went A in 10 of the 14 rounds. Liquid attempted an A site take in 6 of the 9 rounds of the half. There was only one T-side round in the entire match that focused on middle control, which Liquid attempted in Round 24, the final round of the match. They got stuffed on it.

FaZe’s defeat of Spirit at the PGL Copenhagen Major kicked off CS2’s Major cycle with a game of chicken between karrigan and Hally, along with Chopper. Baiting Team Spirit to ban down to Vertigo could be argued as a stroke of genius by the GOAT IGL contender, but the game did not necessarily play like a trap card. FaZe overcame Team Spirit with sheer player quality and the fact that stage fright had a chokehold on Team Spirit. zont1x had a noticeably poor performance, which SPUNJ accurately pointed out during the live English broadcast. Multiple failed clutches were made with no serious attempts, and the rest of Team Spirit, despite having Vertigo in their normal map rotation, could not hold it together mentally. It should not be forgotten that donk still played exceedingly well for a Major playoff rookie, posting over 90 damage per round.

Both of the most memorable Vertigo matches in Major history had more excitement in the veto than in the actual gameplay.

Beyond that, many Vertigo matches have come and gone, forgotten like dust in the wind. A significant flaw with the map throughout history has been that the A bombsite is the only one with a consistent method of employing 3-man teamwork, so teams live and die by their ramp control. This is not to say that there are no intricacies to ramp fights. There is the procedural spamming of smoke from players like Elige, and the numerous gimmicks from m0NESY to give him new angles on the edge of smokes or through the construction material lining the scaffolding.

It’s just that those details are difficult to keep up with if we don’t see the perspective of the killer. Whereas Tier 1 observers can regularly catch the killer’s perspective in most professional games, I’m convinced that they’re consistently unsure about who will be the favored player in most fights towards A ramp. This is due to the spamming nature of the smoke fights on the ramp, the brazen pushes through smoke, and the seemingly random nature of who comes out on top. At least that’s how it’s frequently portrayed.

Again, there is a method to the madness here, but it’s usually such micro edges that turn a ramp fight in favor of one player or another, which are difficult to pick up on in a spectator experience.

So Valve wanted to change this. Adding a catwalk to the edge of the A bombsite and opening up the elevator door has led to less emphasis on the A ramp fight because you can now choose other ways to defend the bombsite. Now CTs do not have to risk their lives at it every single time as the only viable strategy to defend A. You can fight from the elevator room, or you can fight on the catwalk itself, as Elige has loved doing recently. You can even spam bullets through smokes into what used to be the default safe plant spot. However, these options for CTs have made the T experience towards A more arduous.

Complexity has first-picked de_vertigo in over half of their series in the last 3 months, boasting a 67% win rate in that time as well. The only other teams in the top 12 that lean into it are Vitality and Eternal Fire.

Using Skybox EDGE and filtering only for rounds with full buys since the May 2024 map change, Complexity have actually ended towards A 55 times as opposed to B 65 times. Yep, you can read that again.

The team that is arguably top three in the world on Vertigo right now ends B 59% of the time.

We are no longer in an A ramp simulator.

Regardless, the map still plays poorly as a spectator experience. One of the worst aspects is that holding the flank of A ramp gives a massive shadow advantage to the T at the bottom of A main. CTs that attempt to outsmart their opponents will be met by a prepared support player who simply has to respond to a visual cue a good two seconds before they even see the opposing player’s model.

This goes against the spirit of Counter-Strike. You don’t need an off-angle. You don’t need an AWP. You don’t even need good reaction time. You will always know if you are being flanked on an A play because of the Source 2 lighting, which is laughably disadvantageous for a flanker.

Even with this advantage, Complexity still favors the B bombsite in their matches. What I didn’t mention earlier about all of the additional spots that CT-side A players can defend from is that… they can also just fight ramp. They have all these new spots but can also just play the same ramp fight they have been for the last 5 years. It is simply harder to take A now.

Vertigo has had its time in the map pool. It has been over 5 years since its introduction, and it has simply failed as a map. It has not led to great skill expression. It has not led to mindful flanks and rotations. It has not led to the greatest In-Game Leaders in the world leaning into it to show dominance. It is random, and random is the last thing you want in a competitive, tactical shooter.