CS2 Premier Season 2 to arrive next week: Train in for Vertigo, M4A4 discount, rank reset, and more

Valve has announced that CS2's Premier competitive mode will enter its second season next week. With the changeover comes a myriad of updates to the game, including a map pool change to match the pro scene, a few weapon buffs, and a full rank recalibration.

Here's everything you need to know about Season 2 of CS2 Premier, set to begin in late January 2025.

The first major change in CS2 Premier Season 2 is the map pool adjustment with Train now joining the map pool for Vertigo.

Pro players have been hard at work preparing on the reworked map after it was announced as Vertigo's replacement on Jan. 6. However, many were confused as to why Vertigo remained in the game's Premier matchmaking pool, given it was dropped almost immediately by tournament organizers.

Train has been picked four times so far at BLAST Bounty, the first tier one event of the 2025 calendar. We'll likely see more of it in the coming months as teams make the switch over, but there are still concerns among the community as to whether Train is ready for competitive play.

If it isn't, we're expecting Valve to make quick changes once data from Premier's Season 2 arrives.

Those who participated in Premier during Season 1 will land a commemorative medal, but will need to work to regain their rating in Season 2. "At the start of the new Season you will need to re-establish your CS Rating by winning 10 matches," Valve wrote.

There will be a day of Premier downtime as Valve recalibrates players' ratings "based on your Season 1 performance." Then, it'll work the same as Season 1: win 10 matches to re-establish a rating.

The recalibration, along with the data gathered from playing through over a year's worth of Premier should mean a less punishing set of placement matches.

Season 2 arrives just as the CS2 community began to question when the season changeover would even occur. CS2's launch back in September 2023 brought with it Season 1 of Premier, so a year and a half of a single season felt a little excessive.

Fortunately, Valve has said Season 2 will come to a close following the BLAST Austin Major, meaning a season will seemingly now stretch between each CS2 major. We'll see if Valve sticks to this cycle as each major arrives.

Counter-Terrorists (CTs) are getting a slight buff in the weapons department with the M4A4 and FAMAS rifles both getting buffs.

The M4A4's price has been reduced to $2,900 — now matching the M4A1 — while the FAMAS is getting a similar price cut as well as buffs to its standing and crouching accuracy.

Thanks to its cheaper price, the M4A1 has been the go-to rifle for CTs for a long while now. At the BLAST Bounty this fortnight, the 'A1 has been purchased five times more often than its unsilenced counterpart according to HLTV.

The 'A1's silence benefit, making it great for spamming smokes, might not be enough to counteract the faster fire rate of the 'A4 now that it'll be the same price. It'll be interesting to see how far the needle swings in Premier and at the pro level.

The full set of Premier Season 2 patch notes will be covered when the season goes live sometime next week. For now, stay tuned to esports.gg for more CS2 news and coverage.