You’ll need to go elsewhere for your competitive CS2 fix.
Schedule clear, you've sat down (maybe with a few friends) and want to queue up for some CS2 Premier action. There's a problem, however: Upon clicking matchmaking, the Premier option is greyed out and a "Game Mode Locked" message pops up.
In most cases when you're unable to access Premier it's due to a Steam outage or an internet connection issue. That's not the case here. Here's everything you need to know about the "Game Mode Locked" error in CS2.
Related articles
CS2 Premier Game Mode Locked: When does the next season begin?
If you're seeing the Game Mode Locked message in CS2, it's likely due to the Premier season ending. Valve has said that Premier will be closed for approx. 24 hours as all ranks are recalibrated at the end of the season.
This means you won't be able to play Premier until the recalibration is complete. You'll lose your Premier rating as it has been reset so you'll need to win 10 games before you get it back. Even though Premier is down, you can still play the classic Competitive mode or use third-party services like FACEIT in the meantime for your CS2 fix.
Valve announced the end of Season 1 in late January 2025. From here on out, unless Valve says otherwise, each Premier season will run from the end of a CS2 Major through to the next one, meaning players will have around six months or so to get their rating back.
Those who played at least 25 games in a season will receive a special Premier season badge, with your complete stats and highest rating obtained during the season (Season 1 is excluded; as long as you received a rating, you'll get the badge regardless of games played).
Once Premier returns, be sure to restart CS2 and check for any updates. Valve will use the season changeover to make changes to the game's systems.
That's all for now! Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS2 news and coverage.
