Valve just did what the community has begged for since 2019. A 5.1 GB update dropped on April 28, bringing de_cache back to Counter-Strike 2 with a full Source 2 rebuild. Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch, Retakes. All live. All playable. Seven years of silence, one update to end it.

The Cache CS2 Release: What Changed and What’s Gone

This is not a port. Cache was originally designed by Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo for Counter-Strike: Source back in 2010, then rebuilt for CS:GO by FMPONE (Shawn Snelling) in 2013. Valve purchased the rights from FMPONE in May 2025 and spent nearly a year rebuilding it from the ground up on Source 2. The result is one of the cleanest remakes yet.

The lighting is completely overhauled. Dark corners that plagued the CS:GO version for years are gone, replaced by a brighter, sharper visual style that leans into Cache’s Chornobyl-inspired aesthetic without sacrificing competitive clarity. Textures are new. Performance is noticeably better. The map runs smoother than FMPONE’s community Workshop version that had been available on FACEIT.

Gameplay changes hit harder than expected. Mid Window has been removed entirely, which fundamentally shifts how CTs contest middle. There is now only one peek angle from CT side instead of two, making T-side mid control significantly easier to establish. The A-site door no longer breaks, a change that forces teams to completely rethink their A executes and split timings. New Box on A site is gone, opening up the CT approach and reducing the number of angles Ts need to clear on entry.

And then there’s the elephant on B site. The s1mple graffiti is missing. The legendary tribute to Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s falling AWP double no-scope against Fnatic at ESL One Cologne 2016 did not survive the remake. The wall below Heaven now features generic posters and piping. Valve also stripped all Soviet-era iconography from the map, following the same approach used in the Train remake. s1mple responded on X, calling the new Cache “very beautiful” and adding that the graffiti’s absence wasn’t a big deal because he sees it every day on his body, referencing his tattoo of the artwork.

Not in Premier, Not in Active Duty

Here is the part that matters for competitive players: Cache is not in Premier mode and is nowhere near the professional Active Duty pool. According to multiple reports, the map is expected to enter Active Duty after the IEM Cologne Major 2026, likely aligning with the start of CS2 Premier Season 5.

That timeline makes sense. Valve never drops a map straight into the pro rotation without a testing period. Teams need months to develop utility, learn timings, and build stratbooks before Cache can be considered Major-ready. For now, matchmaking grinders can queue it in standard Competitive and learn angles the old-fashioned way.

The FACEIT community already got a head start. Cache won a platform-wide vote in April with 148,840 votes, beating Train and Vertigo, and went live on FACEIT servers on April 22, a full week before Valve’s official patch.

Cache CS2 2026 Patch Notes: Everything Else in the Update

Cache dominated the headlines, but the rest of the update was not empty.

Dust II received a layout adjustment at Xbox (Mid Box). The box has been uncovered to reveal a jump spot that Valve had previously removed. The patch notes included a now-iconic line: “On purpose this time,” referencing an accidental version of the change that appeared in March.

Office got a collision fix on tarps near CT spawn. Community Workshop maps Stronghold and Poseidon were both updated to their latest versions. On the animation side, Animgraph 2 received minor viewmodel tweaks, and Talon and Karambit knives are now held correctly during defuses. Sound received mix adjustments, and a bug causing no weapon to be held after grenade throws with a hand-switch request was patched.

Valve also shipped a 630 MB hotfix on April 30 addressing bugs introduced by the Cache remake: adjusted bomb explosion radius, lighting fixes around Vent, reworked e-box on A-site for better visibility, lowered the Checkers entrance frame at B Main, and fixed missing footstep sounds on A-site crates.

What It Means for CS2’s Map Pool

Cache was the first community-created map ever added to Active Duty in CS:GO, entering the pool in 2014 and staying until March 2019. Its last professional appearance at IEM Katowice 2019 still lives in the memory of every player who grew up on the map’s mid fights, A-site Forklift duels, and B-site Heaven plays. Valve purchasing the rights, spending a year on the rebuild, and timing the release right after the FACEIT vote all point to one thing: Cache is coming back to pro play. The only question is which map leaves to make room.