14 DAY TRIAL // Valve is rolling out a fresh update for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that sets the stage for the upcoming Dreamhack Winter eSports competition by introducing stickers and special challenges, while fleshing out Operation Vanguard and its rules and adding new rules to the competitive matchmaking.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is currently Valve's second biggest game in terms of popularity, second only to the massive Dota 2. The multiplayer first-person shooter has slowly but surely captured the hearts and minds of many veterans, who already had fond memories of version 1.6, as well as newcomers who want something popular to experience.
After some pretty big scandals regarding a couple of professional players who used cheats and got banned by Valve, the studio is now rolling out an actual update for Global Offensive that brings quite a few different new things as well as changes.
The new patch prepares for Dreamhack Winter 2014
First up, the CS:GO update brings forth the Dreamhack Winter 2014 Team Stickers and Legends capsule. Unlike the promotional efforts for previous eSports competitions, the new one allows players to not only buy a capsule with a random sticker containing the logo of one of the teams present at the event, but also individual ones with their favorites for a slightly higher price.
The stickers can not only be placed on your favorite weapons but also enter the Dreamhack Winter 2014 Pick'Em Challenge, which allows you to predict the winners of the matches that will be played during the actual event.
The update also tweaks Operation Vanguard and matchmaking
Besides these additions, the new CS:GO update also brings forth tweaks to the current Operation Vanguard event, as mission cooldowns now display the hours remaining in the mission panel and journal, while a new display shows how many missions a user can complete. Extra clarification about the Vanguard missions is also present, alongside a few fixes for certain scenarios.
The matchmaking system has also received some restrictions through the new patch, as a player who doesn't have a competitive skill group will not be allowed to queue in a party with another player that has a very high skill group. Accounts without a skill group are also going to be limited to two competitive wins per day until they get their calibration.
Quite a few bug fixes, not to mention solutions for glitches seen in the new Vanguard maps like Workout, Season, Façade, Bazaar, and Marquis are also included in the latest patch for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The update is already available for download via the Steam platform.
