CS2 July Update: Premier Season 5 Returns, Cache Added

Valve rolled out a major Counter-Strike 2 update in its second Thursday drop of July, bringing the game back into Premier Season 5—and making meaningful changes to the competitive map pool and gameplay systems. Beyond the big Premier shift, the patch includes fixes across explosives behavior, weapon pickup from the buy menu, and several CS2 content and engine-related adjustments.

Quick facts

Premier Season 5 begins.
Cache is added to the active Premier map pool.
Overpass is removed from the active Premier map pool.
C4 explosion range/damage and shockwave behavior are redesigned across official bomb maps.
Weapon pickup from the buy menu is fixed when it previously failed to complete.
Two new weapon collections and two new sticker collections are added; several older collections are removed.
CS2 engine code is updated to the latest Source 2 version.
Community maps are rotated across multiple modes, and some maps are removed from all modes.

Premier Season 5 and map pool reshuffle

The update kicks off Premier Season 5. For players, the biggest practical change is the active map pool rotation: Cache is now in, while Overpass is taken out of the Premier rotation.

C4 damage model changes on official bomb maps

Valve also overhauled the way C4 impacts official bomb scenarios. The effective range and damage profile of C4 detonation have been redesigned for all official maps that include bomb scenarios.

With this patch, damage is applied using precomputed simulation values compiled directly into the map. The shockwave behavior is also changed: instead of applying instantly, the effects spread quickly outward from the epicenter.

Gameplay and UI fixes

A fix was added for a case where picking up dropped weapons via the buy menu would not finish successfully. Valve also reduced the performance cost of showing the scoreboard.

On the cosmetic side, sticker placement precision was improved so that rotations can be adjusted in 0.5-degree steps while applying stickers. Valve also addressed a materials-combining issue where effects could disappear if you got too close—example given: grime on barrels on Inferno.

Collections, stickers, and finish options

Valve added two new weapon collections tied to a community “call to arms” announcement: “Arabeski” and “Technologii szpiegowskiej.” It also added two new sticker collections related to the same call to arms theme: “owoce i warzywa” and “wyścigi samochodowe.”

At the same time, collections including “Train 2025” and “Sportu i świeżego powietrza” were removed from the armory. Valve also removed collections for “przystojniaków” and “żywiołowego rzemiosła.”

For finish customization, the “rozszerzone niestandardowe malowanie” type was updated with new controls: an option to account for a dedicated mask texture and an option to set unique UV randomness for the overlay, separate from the UV randomness of the base “białość.”

Engine and scripting updates

Valve included several technical changes that affect how the game and scripts behave. The patch adds new instance-related hooks, including QueueAfterThinks and OnWeaponDrop, and introduces CSWeaponBase.GetOriginalOwner.

It also fixes a crash issue triggered when a name passed into Instance.RegisterCheatCommand collides with an already existing command. Additionally, compile-time error reporting during the CompileModule step now includes the file name and line number, and support for outdated .vts resources was removed.

Finally, the engine code was updated to the newest Source 2 version.

Community map rotation and geometry tweaks

Valve removed community Warden, Stronghold, Alpine, and Sanctum maps from all game modes. It then added community maps Boulder, Fachwerk, and Shelter to the Tournament, Casual, and Deathmatch modes, and added Debris and El Dorado to Wingman.

The update also includes a set of geometry fixes. Valve addressed clearance outside a tunnel, applied geometry corrections outside the same tunnel, and improved geometry to prevent an extremely thin protrusion in the upper center area.