It's all kicking off this weekend, with a Dota Major underway and a CS:GO Major undergoing its final qualifiers. There s also Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Smite to watch and another week of international League of Legends to take in. If the year s been a little quiet so far, that s certainly coming to an abrupt end. If your Dota 2 casters seem a little quiet, however, that s an entirely separate technical problem.

Dota 2: The Shanghai Major group stage

The Major has been off to a strange start, with solid games—and one amazing underdog story—fighting against production problems and the abrupt loss of a panel host. Even so, this is the event in the Dota circuit right now, and the weekend will see the remaining games in the group stage. Tune in on Saturday to see if Frankfurt champs OG can repeat their success in Shanghai. Sunday will see one of the most hotly-contested groups as coL, EG, VP and Liquid duke it out. The stream begins at 09:00 BJT (01:00 GMT/17:00 PST the previous day) and runs for ages. The schedule has been flexible, to say the least, but you can find hypothetical start times here.

Heroes of the Storm: NA Spring Regional

The region's best teams fight for a share of $100,000 and a spot at the Spring Championship in Korea. This is one of the highest-profile events of the HotS calendar so far this year, so makes for a good opportunity to take the scene's temperature—much as Hearthstone's own Americas championship was last week. Games start at 10:00 PST/18:00 GMT each day and you can find the stream here.

Hearthstone: PGL Spring Tavern Tales 2016

$25,000 on the line for some of Europe's best Hearthstone players as 32 of them descend on Bucharest. It'll start with a Swiss group stage followed by single-elimination playoffs for the top 16. The games started today, and will continue throughout the weekend. Play begins at 09:30 GMT/01:30 PST and continues through the evening. Find the stream here.

League of Legends: NA LCS and LPL

Another weekend, another chance to keep tabs on the dominant teams in the US and China ahead of the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational. You can read James Chen's assessment of how each scene is doing here, and find details on schedules—as well as the livestream—on the official LoLesports site.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: MLG Columbus 2016 Main Qualifier

While the top eight for MLG Columbus 2016 is drawn from the world's best-regarded teams, a further eight have a chance to shore up their qualification hopes this weekend. This is the first CS:GO Major to offer the new prize pool of $1,000,000—a massive increase for a scene that was previously capping out at around $250,000. Play starts at around 12:00 EST (17:00 GMT/09:00 PST) each day, and you can find the stream here.

Smite: Spring Split Relegations

Smite is currently going through a multi-phase relegation process to determine which teams advanced to play in the Pro League proper later in the year. This weekend will see phase two play out in Europe and North America, as the winners of the open bracket—players like you or I, but better—face existing Challenger Cup teams for a coveted spot in the big leagues. Games start at 13:00 EST (18:00 GMT/10:00 PST) each day on the official Smite Twitch stream.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Update #3: Harding has delivered his version of events in the form of a Google doc which you can read here. It touches on his relationship with Valve, the event production company, and what he says went down in the run up to and during the ill-fated Shanghai Major broadcast. It also runs to just shy of 7,000 words, so you might want to put the kettle on before wading in. In short: there ain't no drama like Dota 2 drama.

Update #2: Fairly inevitably, sacked Dota 2 panel host James "2GD" Harding has responded to being called an "ass" by none other than Gabe Newell earlier today on Reddit. Harding said he's working on a more detailed response, but for now he had this to say in the accompanying Reddit thread:

"This is why my statement is taking sometime. It seems more personal than professional. So I will respond. Just for the record gabe, I don't think you are an ass. But I don't think you are right about me (well maybe you are a bit of an ass for calling me an ass, but let's find out what others think shall we?). Brb"

For those of you curious as to what led to Harding's dismissal, this footage from day one of the event (beginning at 00:55:10 on the VoD) may prove illuminating. Without wishing to make assumptions about Valve's reasoning, the fact Harding talks about being police monitored, drops a C-bomb (which may be accidental but certainly doesn't sound it), and then riffs about masturbating to hotel pornography—specifically: "Mr Wang's amazing wheelchair antics"—probably contributed to Newell and co going nuclear.

We'll update as and when Harding makes his statement. 

Update #1: Valve boss Gabe Newell has addressed Harding's dismissal in a brief but very pointed message on Reddit. 

"Two things:

Original Story: The Dota 2 Shanghai Major is the subject of a community outcry after panel host James '2GD' Harding was let go after the first day and a half of the tournament.

Harding announced the news in a tweet, prompting a slew of anger and speculation on Twitter and Reddit. Much of this was directed at Perfect World, who operate Dota 2 in China. Harding then clarified in a follow-up tweet that the decision had, in fact, been Valve's.

Until 2015, Harding was a regular presence at official Dota 2 events. He didn't appear at The International 2015 or the Frankfurt Major, however, meaning that the Shanghai Major represented a return of a sorts—a return that has been prematurely cut short. He is known for his willingness to push people's buttons in order to get a laugh, and this is the basis of his popularity among parts of the Dota 2 community.

The exact reason for his firing hasn't been officially explained, but it doesn't appear that there was a single inciting incident. Harding's first day as host was irreverent, sometimes openly mocking of certain pro players, and included off-colour humour and language. Any of these things—or all of them in aggregate—could be the reason, but nothing in particular stands out as the likely explanation. We've contacted Valve for comment. Harding himself plans to write more substantially about the issue tomorrow, describing this is as a "very very odd situation."

It's certainly unusual for a personality to be let go from an esports event without explanation and without an obvious inciting incident.

Prior to this controversy, the community was already unhappy with the production quality of the Shanghai Major. There have been long waits between games as well as audio and video issues on the stream. This isn't unheard of in the group stages of a large event, and there's plenty of time to resolve them before the playoffs begin in earnest, but it compounds a sense of disappointment that is readily apparent from Reddit and Twitch chat.

This is a shame, because the Shanghai Major had a very exciting first day. The surprising rise of MVP Phoenix sets this up to be the best Dota 2 event since, well, the last Major. Given the quality of the games so far, it'd be sad if Dota 2's second Major is remembered instead for the drama it inspired.

For the first time ever, a Korean Dota 2 team have won the group stage of a Valve event

At the Shanghai Major, the second of Valve s seasonal Dota 2 tournaments, the Korean team MVP Phoenix finished their group in first place. That s an understatement, however. They didn t just beat their group, they stomped all over them. They performed so well that no team should have gotten second place because it puts them too close to MVP Phoenix. They didn t drop a single game, achieving a flawless victory.

But given that Korea has never been exceptionally strong in Dota 2, did these wins mean anything? They must have had some weak opposition, especially if they won so hard that their games averaged less than 25 minutes! Not in the least. They first went up against EHOME, a team that took first in the last international Dota 2 tournament, the MarsTV Dota 2 League Winter 2015. Hardly a cakewalk for any team, the analysts even considered EHOME to be the strongest team in the group. Their second opponents were Team Secret, a gathering of some of the highest skilled players in the world, and a team that was able to take second at the last Dota Major in Frankfurt.

Those past results turned out to be meaningless, however, as the MVP Phoenix s playstyle style completely defied expectations. Their last match, game two against Team Secret, really demonstrates what they brought to the table (you can find both games in the series embedded in this article.) MVP Phoenix s lineup consisted of roaming Bounty Hunter, offlane and jungling Nature s Prophet, midlane Phantom Lancer, safelane Leshrac, and support Vengeful Spirit. Team Secret s lineup consisted of midlane Tiny, midlane Io, support Dazzle, offlane Spirit Breaker, and safelane Invoker.

Both teams started the game looking for a fight, and a brawl at the bottom bounty rune led to a two for one kill-exchange in favor of Team Secret. Even so, this established the pace that MVP Phoenix sustained for the rest of the match. Their aggression started over a bounty rune, but it didn t stop until Team Secret s ancient was crumbling. The neutral creeps had barely spawned when offensive map rotations came into play.

At the 45 second mark Febby s Bounty Hunter rotated behind Team Secret s tier two tower and secured a kill on Team Secret s walking courier. As that happened, FoREv s Nature s Prophet began using treants to attack w33 s Invoker underneath his tower - an uncommon strategy since it provides extra experience and gold for the enemy laner. It was all a setup, though, as Invoker took a ton of damage farming treants, and this allowed for a sub-two minute tower dive onto the Secret safe laner. Bounty Hunter and Nature s Prophet eagerly ran past Team Secret s tower and into the treeline to secure a kill.

The timing and the composition of this gank is insanely rare. most teams are comfortably farming on Nature s Prophet in the early game, at most looking for an opportunistic gank. Even though Team Secret was able to pick off Bounty Hunter in response, this defensive rotation hindered their map control as their other lanes began to suffer.

Specifically: bottom lane, where Team Secret was struggling to maintain their composure. At the four minute mark, a single gank let MVP Phoenix use Leshrac s Diabolic Edict and Nature s Prophet s treants to destroy a tier one tower. Without hesitation, the four-man push went on to destroy Team Secret s tier two tower. They used this early surge in gold to continue blasting towers as Team Secret watched in horror. Thirteen minutes into the game MVP Phoenix had destroyed all but one tier two tower, and was already engaging on Team Secret s high ground. There was no hesitation to engage - there wasn t even an Aegis of the Immortal - MVP Phoenix just kept going for it until they won. Even when Team Secret tried to claw back into the game using stacked neutral camps, MVP Phoenix were ready with a gank and steal. It was closer to a mouse trying to escape a playful cat than a normal game of back-and-forth Dota.

This success wasn t a stroke of luck, though. MVP Phoenix s draft brought an intense focus on the early game that was reminiscent of CDEC at The International 2015. The various MVP Phoenix lineups had two strengths: the ability to easily set up kills as a team starting at low levels, and quick objective-taking. This very apparent when MP s Leshrac didn t level Lightning Storm until level ten, and instead focused on Split Earth and Diabolic Edict, a much older and less common build. This old school build worked, however, and with minimal setup Split Earth secured kills, which let Diabolic Edict shred through towers.

Since their pressure never let up, MVP Phoenix was constantly forcing Secret s draft to fight before they were powerful. An early game Io and Dazzle could do nothing to stop the constant push, and Spirit Breaker was more of a gold source than viable offlaner. Secret did eventually find their feet, but they were so pushed-in, so far behind, that single mistakes were costing them Roshan, their barracks, and the game itself. This hyper aggression has shown up in the past, but recent games have usually been decided much later than the ten minute mark

Among some fans there s been a long running fear of Korea dominating the Dota scene. This is due in part to other esports where Korean players and organizations have firmly taken root as first place finishers (and sometimes second and third as well.) The global StarCraft scene has been dominated by Korean players for many years. Meanwhile, the League of Legends world champions have been Korean teams for the past three years - more than half of LoL s tournament lifespan.

This doesn t mean that MVP Phoenix is signaling the Korean Dota revolution, however. The players train in China s Dota 2 region, where three of the of the ten highest MMRs belong to MVP Phoenix players. And while solid infrastructure exists in Korean esports organizations, Dota is a much newer phenomenon there when compared to every other competitive region.

While leaving groups in first place is a big deal, it ultimately may not have long-lasting effects. Both Secret and EHOME may have slept on research, and MVP s first opponent in the playoffs will have until March 2nd to plan around the Korean aggression. Their four stomps are going to be researched and dissected like other top games, and entering the winner s bracket only secures ninth place for MVP Phoenix. As MVP Phoenix have already demonstrated, however, anything is possible.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

Valve just announced that all future CS:GO majors will have a prize pool of $1 million. The previous purse for a major was $250,000, a figure that many major or unofficial CS:GO events have equaled but never exceeded. The first $1 million tournament will be MLG Columbus 2016, which takes place March 29 through April 3. Although it's the only major on the calendar so far for 2016, there were three each in 2015 and 2014.

According to an MLG official, tournament winnings will be structured thus:

• Winner $500,000 
• Finalist $150,000 
• Semi-Finalist $70,000 
• Quarter Finalist $35,000 
• Group Stage $8,750

With this announcement, posted unceremoniously on the Counter-Strike blog, Valve's financial commitment should further stimulate the scene and encourage existing teams to dedicate themselves to CS:GO even more in the face of upcoming, esports-friendly FPSes like Overwatch. "The professional CS:GO community has been growing at an incredible rate," Valve says in the announcement. CS:GO was the second-most watched game on Twitch during 2015, after League of Legends, and it remains the second-most played game on Steam (in terms of concurrent players) after Dota 2.

We're back! This time we'll go over how to attack on Train. At first this might seem a little tricky but as long as you use smokes before you attack you should be able to pick up a few rounds. There are a few reasons why smokes are so important on Train. The first being the long distances and how easy it is for an AWPer to kill you as you initiate the push. The second is that it helps you get the bomb planted. Unless the CTs climb trains or go through a smoke, they can't really know how many terrorists are there.

One thing to keep in mind is how separate the bomb sites are, and that you need to control ladder room if you want to be able to rotate effectively. Most of the time these rotations will be quite obvious and the counter-terrorists will be able to get to their next stop much earlier than you re comfortable with. Chances are that you will find more success if you execute a pre-planned strategy towards one site after you've gathered information and maybe even picked up a kill.

Smokes on A

Let's dive into the fine art of smoking bombsite A. There are some really useful smokes on the outer trainyard. Because I'm a good guy and I care about your browser's well-being I'll include two smokes per gif (with a hard g).

The first smoke is going to cover the area between connector and bomb train to make it easier for a terrorist to attack from ladder room without getting killed. The second one will smoke between the brown train and the bomb train to make the last part of your journey with the bomb a little more convenient.

You will also want to smoke on either side of the blue train. Here's how to do just that:

If you use all of these smokes you are almost guaranteed to get the bomb down, but there are problems. The defenders will be able to attempt a retake with five players still alive and you won't have any smokes left for the choke points after the plant. Of all these smokes, the one to the left of the blue train is the least important in the sense that it doesn't help you transport the bomb to site. The smoke does however make it less attractive for the CTs to attempt a backstab. If you don't want to use that smoke you can peek that lane with an AWP instead. Or you can leave a gap somewhere else, as long as you have a plan and are ready to challenge your opponents.

After you have planted the bomb it's very important to communicate. Make sure you have ladder room covered. I don't know how many times my team has been sprayed down from there just because we failed to communicate. Especially if the guy who's supposed to take care of ladder died during the push. Make sure you take post plant positions that will make it easy for you to peek towards the bomb.

On the next page: attacking bombsite B.

Attacking bombsite B

Just like on A, smokes are a crucial part of a successful B-take. The first smoke is very straightforward. Simply smoke off lower to deny any snipers far back their much needed target practice. It's also a good idea to pop a flash before you push in case a counter-terrorist is waiting for you on top of low train.

The next smoke will make it easier for you to reach the plant spot. Line up the smoke and time the throw with whoever smokes lower before you attack.

The third smoke is for upper. Just like the one on lower the main purpose is to avoid getting killed by a player far back. Once you have the smoke screen up you can assist by making sure no one tries to sneak up on your teammate while he plants the bomb.

Remember that you don't need to take the site with five terrorists. It doesn't make sense to go ham with the entire team and then have to try to get back through lower for a post-plant position. I recommend that one player stays behind to make sure that you are aware of any counter-terrorists coming in from behind.

Take your time

Because of the nature of Train you will have lots of time to decide what site to attack. Before the final push, you are quite separate from the defending team. This gives you the opportunity to split up and try to secure kills. Pay attention to how your enemies play. Will they rotate a guy from B if you get a kill on ivy? Are they passive and slow to rotate? Use information of this kind to your advantage.

Try to keep track of what they bought in the previous round and how many losses, wins and surviving players they've had to get a sense of whether or not they will be able to buy proper weapons. This may seem a bit confusing, especially if you're new, but it's important. If they are on an eco round they are more prone to go for the risky play, which means you will need to be careful. For instance, if you're up against an eco and you don't gather information before you attack you might run into a five man stack on one site. Because of your smokes you won't be aware of the fact until it's too late.

Bonus trick!

This molotov is really strong in one versus one situations to keep the counter-terrorist off the bomb for a few extra seconds. Fire is your friend!

Find our other Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map guides here:

• Inferno Counter-Terrorist guide
• Inferno Terrorist guide
• Cache Counter-Terrorist guide
• Cache Terrorist guide
• Overpass Counter-Terrorist guide
• Overpass Terrorist guide
• Cobblestone Counter-Terrorist guide
• Cobblestone Terrorist guide
• Train Counter-Terrorist guide

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

We're back! This time we'll go over how to attack on Train. At first this might seem a little tricky but as long as you use smokes before you attack you should be able to pick up a few rounds. There are a few reasons why smokes are so important on Train. The first being the long distances and how easy it is for an AWPer to kill you as you initiate the push. The second is that it helps you get the bomb planted. Unless the CTs climb trains or go through a smoke, they can't really know how many terrorists are there.

One thing to keep in mind is how separate the bomb sites are, and that you need to control ladder room if you want to be able to rotate effectively. Most of the time these rotations will be quite obvious and the counter-terrorists will be able to get to their next stop much earlier than you re comfortable with. Chances are that you will find more success if you execute a pre-planned strategy towards one site after you've gathered information and maybe even picked up a kill.

Smokes on A

Let's dive into the fine art of smoking bombsite A. There are some really useful smokes on the outer trainyard. Because I'm a good guy and I care about your browser's well-being I'll include two smokes per gif (with a hard g).

The first smoke is going to cover the area between connector and bomb train to make it easier for a terrorist to attack from ladder room without getting killed. The second one will smoke between the brown train and the bomb train to make the last part of your journey with the bomb a little more convenient.

You will also want to smoke on either side of the blue train. Here's how to do just that:

If you use all of these smokes you are almost guaranteed to get the bomb down, but there are problems. The defenders will be able to attempt a retake with five players still alive and you won't have any smokes left for the choke points after the plant. Of all these smokes, the one to the left of the blue train is the least important in the sense that it doesn't help you transport the bomb to site. The smoke does however make it less attractive for the CTs to attempt a backstab. If you don't want to use that smoke you can peek that lane with an AWP instead. Or you can leave a gap somewhere else, as long as you have a plan and are ready to challenge your opponents.

After you have planted the bomb it's very important to communicate. Make sure you have ladder room covered. I don't know how many times my team has been sprayed down from there just because we failed to communicate. Especially if the guy who's supposed to take care of ladder died during the push. Make sure you take post plant positions that will make it easy for you to peek towards the bomb.

On the next page: attacking bombsite B.

Attacking bombsite B

Just like on A, smokes are a crucial part of a successful B-take. The first smoke is very straightforward. Simply smoke off lower to deny any snipers far back their much needed target practice. It's also a good idea to pop a flash before you push in case a counter-terrorist is waiting for you on top of low train.

The next smoke will make it easier for you to reach the plant spot. Line up the smoke and time the throw with whoever smokes lower before you attack.

The third smoke is for upper. Just like the one on lower the main purpose is to avoid getting killed by a player far back. Once you have the smoke screen up you can assist by making sure no one tries to sneak up on your teammate while he plants the bomb.

Remember that you don't need to take the site with five terrorists. It doesn't make sense to go ham with the entire team and then have to try to get back through lower for a post-plant position. I recommend that one player stays behind to make sure that you are aware of any counter-terrorists coming in from behind.

Take your time

Because of the nature of Train you will have lots of time to decide what site to attack. Before the final push, you are quite separate from the defending team. This gives you the opportunity to split up and try to secure kills. Pay attention to how your enemies play. Will they rotate a guy from B if you get a kill on ivy? Are they passive and slow to rotate? Use information of this kind to your advantage.

Try to keep track of what they bought in the previous round and how many losses, wins and surviving players they've had to get a sense of whether or not they will be able to buy proper weapons. This may seem a bit confusing, especially if you're new, but it's important. If they are on an eco round they are more prone to go for the risky play, which means you will need to be careful. For instance, if you're up against an eco and you don't gather information before you attack you might run into a five man stack on one site. Because of your smokes you won't be aware of the fact until it's too late.

Bonus trick!

This molotov is really strong in one versus one situations to keep the counter-terrorist off the bomb for a few extra seconds. Fire is your friend!

Find our other Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map guides here:

• Inferno Counter-Terrorist guide
• Inferno Terrorist guide
• Cache Counter-Terrorist guide
• Cache Terrorist guide
• Overpass Counter-Terrorist guide
• Overpass Terrorist guide
• Cobblestone Counter-Terrorist guide
• Cobblestone Terrorist guide
• Train Counter-Terrorist guide

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

The Valve News Network—obviously, not a Valve-run news network, but rather a thorough YouTube channel dedicated to all things Valve—has released a new video, about Portal. The Unseen History of Portal delves deep into the making of the classic puzzler, presenting a bunch of unseen footage and little-known info in the process.

SEE Portal's origins as student project Narbacular Drop, WITNESS its evolution into a Valve property and into the Source engine, and BEHOLD what came after, i.e. cake. PC Gamer even gets a (very) brief mention—did our site really used to look like that?

Things heat up in the dead of winter as the professional CS:GO circuit heads to beautiful Barcelona and the entire American continent competes for a scant few slots at the Winter Championship in March. There's also Dota 2 league play and the ongoing drama of the League of Legends season if you prefer your esports isometric and wizard-centric.

Hearthstone: Americas Winter Preliminary

Hundreds of the best Hearthstone players in the Americas duke it out across more than dozen locations. The top eight players will advance to the Americas Winter Championship next month, where there's $100,000 and a place at the Hearthstone World Championship on the line. You can find more info here and find the stream on Twitch.

Dota 2: WePlay League Season 3

This is a bit of a quiet weekend for Dota 2, but there are games to be played in the WePlay Dota 2 league nonetheless. On Saturday you can catch games in EU East between Power Rangers and Hellraisers followed by Empire vs. Na'Vi. Those begin at 16:00 GMT/08:00 PST. On Sunday the action shifts to Southeast Asia as First Departure take on first MVP.Phoenix and then Mineski starting at 13:00 GMT/05:00 PST. Find the stream over at JoinDotaRED.

League of Legends: NA LCS Spring/LoL Pro League Spring

Another busy weekend for League, as both the NA LCS and China's LPL see top-level play all weekend. You can find schedules for both, along with the streams, on the official LoLesports site.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: ESL Barcelona Invitational presented by MWC

Some of the best CS:GO teams of the world play for 75,000. Tune in to see Fnatic, EnvyUS, and Astralis take on qualifying teams from Europe and—specifically—Spain. Games are running throughout the weekend from 07:30 GMT/23:30 PST. Catch it all on ESL's CSGO Twitch stream.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

There was much excitement at the confirmation that the long-rumoured competitive mode for Team Fortress 2 was in production and would be entering beta Soon. Valve didn't give away much beyond asking anyone who'd like to take part to join a competitive TF2 Steam group. But now, well, the devs still aren't giving us anything so concrete as a date, but there are some new details as to how all this will play out.

"Our plan is to start small and increase participation as we go," the announcement reads. "For this initial phase of testing—which will begin in the next week or so—we'll be gradually granting random members from this group an in-game item called a Competitive Matchmaking Beta Pass. Once you've been granted a pass you will have ongoing access to the beta."

'Ongoing' is pleasing to hear, although 'random' will excite people less, but such is the nature of beta testing the primary purpose of which isn't marketing. To bring the haves and have-nots a little closer together, the beta period will be interspersed will stress tests, in which large numbers of people will be invited to participate for a limited time.

If you want to further your chances of being selected, Valve would like you to help out its ongoing crackdown on account fraud, namely by:

• Having purchased a copy of Team Fortress 2 prior to June 23, 2011, or having made a purchase from the Mann Co. Store. (okay, this one is more about swearing fealty)
• Enabling Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator
• Associating a phone number with your Steam account

Good luck!

Valve just released Operation Wildfire, and with it comes a brand new version of the map Nuke. Once immensely popular, Nuke got removed from the competitive map pool due to balance issues. A remake of the map has been requested by the community ever since and now we ve got one. Welcome to the Cedar Creek Nuclear Power Plant!

My first impression of the map is that it looks gorgeous. It's very bright and colorful with amazing textures. The visibility is vastly improved compared to previous iterations. But what did they change? Pretty much everything. The biggest alteration is probably the ladder leading up to silo from T-spawn and the rafters connecting silo with catwalk.

I've played a couple of games on matchmaking and so far I've enjoyed it. The first thing I noticed was how easy it was for the terrorists to take control over yard. There are so many angles for the counter-terrorists to cover even just a few seconds into the round. It's still too early to dive into any sort of strategic analysis, but we found that the good ol Nuke mindset just isn't going to cut it. We had more success when we took a more passive approach and stayed close to the bombsites with one guy trying to spot enemies on yard from far back.

Another big change is the vents. Now there's only one opening both upstairs and downstairs. They have, however, added a new door with a decontamination room to give the defenders more angles to worry about. I think the door will be a key point on the map that both the Ts and the CTs will want to control.

They have also added another door downstairs, just below the ramp. That door allows for some really cool crossfires and gives the counter-terrorists more incentives to play close to the site. It's hard to say how the metagame is going to develop, but overall l I think the changes to the B-site are interesting.

Changes upstairs

The upper bombsite has also seen some major changes. The biggest being the addition of skyboxes to prevent defenders from reaching dogwalk. This means that pushes through squeaky will be a lot more effective as there are fewer angles to check.

Valve also moved the upper canisters further back to give terrorists more cover as they attack through hut, as well as adding a ladder leading up to the rafters. These changes are bound to have a huge impact on the balance of the site. It will both be easier to take the site and to defend it once you have planted the bomb.

On the CT side, they've added a box in front of the window as well as made changes to the small roof outside catwalk. These changes will allow for really dynamic plays with lots of movement and positioning options.

Final thoughts

The map is most definitely more T-sided than it's been in the past, maybe even a bit too T-sided. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Nuke. As I see it, it's not impossible that it'll be added to the competitive map pool. The question then is, what map will it replace? Or will they increase the number of maps? Personally I could see Inferno getting replaced at some point because of the often very slow rounds due to effective smokes. Balanced as Inferno might be, I'd still like to see faster gameplay from a spectators point of view.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!