“CS feels broken and ridiculous”: CS2 pros react to Show Off update

Jonno Nicholson
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Image of Counter-Strike player Niko competing for Team Falcons at BLAST Austin Major
Image credit: Michal Konkol, BLAST

Professional Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) players have expressed their frustrations following the release of the first-person shooter’s Show Off update on September 17th.

Team Falcons rifler Nikola ‘NiKo‘ Kovač is among the players claiming the update has made the title worse to play.

The Show Off update introduced adjustments to shooting subtick, designed to add greater precision and responsiveness when shooting weapons during matches.

While the change was meant to have a positive impact on in-game mechanics, NiKo took to social media claiming CS2 feels worse than before. “How can they make game feel even worse every f**king time,” said the rifler.

NiKo isn’t the only professional player to be left frustrated with the recent update. Aurora Gaming‘s İsmailсan ‘XANTARES’ Dörtkardeş also claims subtick changes have impacted the spray pattern of certain weapons.

“This update completely destroyed the spray. CS feels broken and ridiculous now. And the funny thing is, we’ll have to play in the tournament with this new update,” commented the player.

Due to the timing of the update, players will be competing with the adjusted subtick at FISSURE Playground 2 and StarLadder StarSeries Season 19, two Tier 1 events that could have a significant impact on the Valve Regional Standings (VRS).

How Will Valve Respond?

With criticism surrounding the update continuing to appear, CS2 developer Valve has already applied further adjustments to subtick in a smaller update that went live on September 18th.

In addition to fixing purchasing errors for the Genesis Terminal Uplink, the update applied “improved timestep-independence of subtick movement acceleration,” in a bid to further optimise the game’s core mechanics.

The developer is no stranger to applying several small updates to ensure a smooth gameplay experience is maintained across its casual and competitive modes. The September 18th update was the month’s seventh update as Valve continues to adjust various elements of the title.

Jonno Nicholson

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Jonno is a writer for Esports Insider and has been part of the team since 2019. Over the past ten years, he's written for several outlets including Gfinity, GGRecon, and Radio Times. As an avid sim racer, he aims to provide insight on one of the fastest growing sectors in esports.
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