It’s that magic time where spring prepares to give way to summer; a time for fun in the sun, vacations, friends, and of course… a brand new operation for CSGO! New modes, campaigns, and bragging rights await you… welcome to Operation Bloodhound.

The Global Offensive is ever changing, and with new conflicts comes new places to do battle… which you’ll get to experience FOR FREE.

Log – Cut down more than trees, as a long-ranged battle breaks out at a logging facility.

Rails – A decrepit rail yard becomes an industrial killing field in this night-time engagement.

Resort – Once a temple to excess and wealth, the luxurious Elysee Resort has been transformed into a high-stakes firefight.

Zoo – Terrorists have arrived at the Bay Area Zoo, and they didn’t come for the dolphin show.

Fan favorites Season and Agency are also making their triumphant return with Operation Bloodhound.

In addition to maps, all players will now have the ability to improve their Profile Rank by earning XP. As you increase your Profile Rank, not only will your CSGO profile evolve to show off your new title and icon; but the first time you rank up each week will earn you a weapon drop.

Like the operations before it, The Operation Bloodhound Access Pass come with a challenge coin and journal to track your progress… however the addition of Profile Ranks calls for something extra special. By purchasing the Access Pass, your earned weapon drops are pulled from exclusive Bloodhound weapon collections (Cobblestone, Cache, Overpass, Gods and Monsters, The Rising Sun, and Chop Shop).

Also included in the Access Pass are two brand new campaigns: Marksman and Revolution… each campaign brings with it a unique story, exclusive co-op challenges, and plenty of opportunities to earn xp.

Each Falchion Weapons Case contains a chance at one of 16 community-created weapon finishes, as well as a chance to gain a new (and deadly) addition to the knife family: The Falchion. This wicked blade can only be found in this operation exclusive case.

It’s that magic time where spring prepares to give way to summer; a time for fun in the sun, vacations, friends, and of course… a brand new operation for CSGO! New modes, campaigns, and bragging rights await you… welcome to Operation Bloodhound.

The Global Offensive is ever changing, and with new conflicts comes new places to do battle… which you’ll get to experience FOR FREE.

Log – Cut down more than trees, as a long-ranged battle breaks out at a logging facility.

Rails – A decrepit rail yard becomes an industrial killing field in this night-time engagement.

Resort – Once a temple to excess and wealth, the luxurious Elysee Resort has been transformed into a high-stakes firefight.

Zoo – Terrorists have arrived at the Bay Area Zoo, and they didn’t come for the dolphin show.

Fan favorites Season and Agency are also making their triumphant return with Operation Bloodhound.

In addition to maps, all players will now have the ability to improve their Profile Rank by earning XP. As you increase your Profile Rank, not only will your CSGO profile evolve to show off your new title and icon; but the first time you rank up each week will earn you a weapon drop.

Like the operations before it, The Operation Bloodhound Access Pass come with a challenge coin and journal to track your progress… however the addition of Profile Ranks calls for something extra special. By purchasing the Access Pass, your earned weapon drops are pulled from exclusive Bloodhound weapon collections (Cobblestone, Cache, Overpass, Gods and Monsters, The Rising Sun, and Chop Shop).

Also included in the Access Pass are two brand new campaigns: Marksman and Revolution… each campaign brings with it a unique story, exclusive co-op challenges, and plenty of opportunities to earn xp.

Each Falchion Weapons Case contains a chance at one of 16 community-created weapon finishes, as well as a chance to gain a new (and deadly) addition to the knife family: The Falchion. This wicked blade can only be found in this operation exclusive case.

This operation features unlimited free access to a collection of six top-rated community maps, and introduces Campaigns – a new and rewarding way to play CS:GO. Forge your own path through a series of missions, earning extra Operation Vanguard Cases or weapon drops as a reward.

With your Access Pass, you can complete two missions per week in the two Campaigns included with the pass. If that’s not enough, you can take on optional Campaigns that will allow you to complete additional weekly missions and will send you farther across the globe. Complete a sequence of missions within a Campaign to earn Challenge Stars and upgrade your Operation Vanguard Challenge Coin!

In addition to campaigns, you’ll get a Competitive Scorecard to track key stats from all of your play in official competitive matches on Vanguard and Active Duty maps throughout the operation. Check out the Friends Leaderboard, and find out how you stack up against your friends.

Arms Race Update

Arms Race gets an overhaul with new rules and three maps previously restricted to Demolition mode. Will you charge through the weapon progression, or focus on taking down the enemy team’s leader? Check out this Arms Race Guide for all the info on the Arms Race update.

All this and more (including a new map in Demolition mode!) in today’s update, so what are you waiting for? Your Operation begins now!

See detailed update notes here.

This operation features unlimited free access to a collection of six top-rated community maps, and introduces Campaigns – a new and rewarding way to play CS:GO. Forge your own path through a series of missions, earning extra Operation Vanguard Cases or weapon drops as a reward.

With your Access Pass, you can complete two missions per week in the two Campaigns included with the pass. If that’s not enough, you can take on optional Campaigns that will allow you to complete additional weekly missions and will send you farther across the globe. Complete a sequence of missions within a Campaign to earn Challenge Stars and upgrade your Operation Vanguard Challenge Coin!

In addition to campaigns, you’ll get a Competitive Scorecard to track key stats from all of your play in official competitive matches on Vanguard and Active Duty maps throughout the operation. Check out the Friends Leaderboard, and find out how you stack up against your friends.

Arms Race Update

Arms Race gets an overhaul with new rules and three maps previously restricted to Demolition mode. Will you charge through the weapon progression, or focus on taking down the enemy team’s leader? Check out this Arms Race Guide for all the info on the Arms Race update.

All this and more (including a new map in Demolition mode!) in today’s update, so what are you waiting for? Your Operation begins now!

See detailed update notes here.

To All Workshop Submitters,

We've recently updated the workshop submission tools for CS:GO, and as a result the process for generating a new (or modifying an old) submission has changed.

If you are updating a prior submission or generating a new submission:

1) Launch CS:GO
2) Open the console
3) type 'workshop_publish' and press enter.

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

To All Workshop Submitters,

We've recently updated the workshop submission tools for CS:GO, and as a result the process for generating a new (or modifying an old) submission has changed.

If you are updating a prior submission or generating a new submission:

1) Launch CS:GO
2) Open the console
3) type 'workshop_publish' and press enter.

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

As we consider what will be included in the next big Operation, we wanted to talk a bit about community made maps and how they are selected.

The CS:GO workshop community has generated a ton of custom made maps of increasingly high quality. We're currently in our fourth Operation, and so far Operations have featured a total of 21 unique community made maps. On average, each community map has earned over $23,000, per Operation it was featured in.

Deciding which maps are included in an Operation involves much consideration of several distinct criteria. Every map is considered and evaluated on its own individual merits. The final decision is made by carefully weighing each of the following contributing factors:

Maps should succeed at bringing players into the game by presenting an attractive and visually appealing space. Strong aesthetic quality should make players happy to spend time in the map, independent of gameplay considerations. This criteria may include a cohesive theme for the map, or a consistent style that helps players fulfill a fantasy. A good-looking map with a high level of polish that matches the quality of the official maps is a requirement, but a map with an interesting or unique core theme with spaces that feel like a real place, is of significant value. Our goal is not to dismiss any map out of hand, but rather to ensure that Operations include great-looking maps with consistent aesthetic quality.

If great visuals bring players in, great gameplay gets them to stay. When players are challenged or are having fun on a map, they will choose to play on the map over and over again. This is called Player Retention and is achieved by creating a map that is balanced, has lots of opportunities for a player/team to learn new strategies, develop new skills or have fun, new experiences. Ideally we want CS:GO’s maps to enjoy extended popularity due to strong gameplay even after the initial fantasy has waned. This will ensure that a map will stick around and keep players happy for a long time. Maps that don’t objectively meet these criteria will score poorly in this area.

Community play time for workshop maps is a primary driving factor for determining map popularity, but community interest also plays a factor. Interest is a combination of a bunch of components including workshop ratings and community discussion, but (if applicable) we value how many people are currently playing a map and how much they play it as the most important factor in this category. The Playtime / Interest category is considered a wildcard category for us and will multiply the value of the first two categories, but can't make up for a map that scores very low in them.

Maps that excel in all three categories have a higher likelihood of being included in an Operation.

FAQ
My map wasn’t selected for this Operation, is it possible it’ll make it into a future operation?
Yes. If a map meets the bar on the criteria above, but did not get selected, it is still eligible to be included in future operations.

Will my map be considered for an Operation if it is not uploaded to the workshop?
No. Maps need to be on the CS:GO workshop to be considered in an Operation. Additionally, they need to be in a “shippable” state before Valve make the map picks for the upcoming Operation. Ideally, the map has also been played a bunch by the community and has gone through a lot of rounds of feedback and iteration.

But if it meets the bar and was submitted to the workshop on time, why wasn't it selected?
When the group of maps are selected for an Operation, the maps are selected so that they work as a collection. Our goal is to provide a collection of strong maps that have good gameplay variety and unique visuals that appeal to different groups of people. If your map meets the bar, but wasn't selected, it may have not fit well with the group selected and will be considered next time.

How important is “theme” in a map?
We consider theme to be very important. We tend to see a lot of maps that all have similar themes (warehouses, generic industrial, generic factories, etc) or maps that tend to heavily share themes with maps we’ve already shipped. Creating a map with a unique theme will help your map stand out to the community and will increase your chances of getting noticed/selected.

Will non-Classic (arms race, demolition etc.) maps ever be included in an Operation?
There are a lot of great non-Classic maps on the Workshop and we’re working on ways to include them in future Operations while still generating enough revenue for the map authors, but for now, we’re only including maps that support Classic modes.

What’s more important: New and novel features or tried and true familiar gameplay?
The short answer is that they are both equally important and different types players will value them differently. Players who have been playing for a long time have built up a lot of skills and expectations and playing a map that feels “familiar” to them is very important. But on the other hand, there are a lot of players who value new experiences which they can share with their friends and have fun. Producing a map that is both new and incorporates familiar things from classic maps is a good goal when producing a map.

As we consider what will be included in the next big Operation, we wanted to talk a bit about community made maps and how they are selected.

The CS:GO workshop community has generated a ton of custom made maps of increasingly high quality. We're currently in our fourth Operation, and so far Operations have featured a total of 21 unique community made maps. On average, each community map has earned over $23,000, per Operation it was featured in.

Deciding which maps are included in an Operation involves much consideration of several distinct criteria. Every map is considered and evaluated on its own individual merits. The final decision is made by carefully weighing each of the following contributing factors:

Maps should succeed at bringing players into the game by presenting an attractive and visually appealing space. Strong aesthetic quality should make players happy to spend time in the map, independent of gameplay considerations. This criteria may include a cohesive theme for the map, or a consistent style that helps players fulfill a fantasy. A good-looking map with a high level of polish that matches the quality of the official maps is a requirement, but a map with an interesting or unique core theme with spaces that feel like a real place, is of significant value. Our goal is not to dismiss any map out of hand, but rather to ensure that Operations include great-looking maps with consistent aesthetic quality.

If great visuals bring players in, great gameplay gets them to stay. When players are challenged or are having fun on a map, they will choose to play on the map over and over again. This is called Player Retention and is achieved by creating a map that is balanced, has lots of opportunities for a player/team to learn new strategies, develop new skills or have fun, new experiences. Ideally we want CS:GO’s maps to enjoy extended popularity due to strong gameplay even after the initial fantasy has waned. This will ensure that a map will stick around and keep players happy for a long time. Maps that don’t objectively meet these criteria will score poorly in this area.

Community play time for workshop maps is a primary driving factor for determining map popularity, but community interest also plays a factor. Interest is a combination of a bunch of components including workshop ratings and community discussion, but (if applicable) we value how many people are currently playing a map and how much they play it as the most important factor in this category. The Playtime / Interest category is considered a wildcard category for us and will multiply the value of the first two categories, but can't make up for a map that scores very low in them.

Maps that excel in all three categories have a higher likelihood of being included in an Operation.

FAQ
My map wasn’t selected for this Operation, is it possible it’ll make it into a future operation?
Yes. If a map meets the bar on the criteria above, but did not get selected, it is still eligible to be included in future operations.

Will my map be considered for an Operation if it is not uploaded to the workshop?
No. Maps need to be on the CS:GO workshop to be considered in an Operation. Additionally, they need to be in a “shippable” state before Valve make the map picks for the upcoming Operation. Ideally, the map has also been played a bunch by the community and has gone through a lot of rounds of feedback and iteration.

But if it meets the bar and was submitted to the workshop on time, why wasn't it selected?
When the group of maps are selected for an Operation, the maps are selected so that they work as a collection. Our goal is to provide a collection of strong maps that have good gameplay variety and unique visuals that appeal to different groups of people. If your map meets the bar, but wasn't selected, it may have not fit well with the group selected and will be considered next time.

How important is “theme” in a map?
We consider theme to be very important. We tend to see a lot of maps that all have similar themes (warehouses, generic industrial, generic factories, etc) or maps that tend to heavily share themes with maps we’ve already shipped. Creating a map with a unique theme will help your map stand out to the community and will increase your chances of getting noticed/selected.

Will non-Classic (arms race, demolition etc.) maps ever be included in an Operation?
There are a lot of great non-Classic maps on the Workshop and we’re working on ways to include them in future Operations while still generating enough revenue for the map authors, but for now, we’re only including maps that support Classic modes.

What’s more important: New and novel features or tried and true familiar gameplay?
The short answer is that they are both equally important and different types players will value them differently. Players who have been playing for a long time have built up a lot of skills and expectations and playing a map that feels “familiar” to them is very important. But on the other hand, there are a lot of players who value new experiences which they can share with their friends and have fun. Producing a map that is both new and incorporates familiar things from classic maps is a good goal when producing a map.

The CS:GO workshop community constantly amazes us with weapon finishes and stickers of increasingly high quality. We have currently shipped over 70 weapon submissions made by the community and all together, CS:GO weapon finish creators have earned over $3 million, with each finish earning over $40,000 on average.

Since shipping the first community case, we've gathered and responded to a variety of contributor questions. Common questions include "how do I get my submission in a case?", and "what can I do better to get my work noticed?". These are useful questions to answer for all contributors, so we've outlined our answers in the form of contributor tips below:

Tips for Contributors

• Submit only high quality designs that were made by you. The entirety of the submission must be your creation; no clip art. It must be original content and if the work is the result of collaboration then every contributor must be listed in the contributor revenue share. The designs that you submit must be of high quality in execution. Showing your process is a great way to stand out and demonstrate the quality and originality of your work.
  
  
• For weapon finishes, consider making finishes for weapons that have few high quality submissions. Some weapons don’t have a lot of high quality finishes submitted for them (Duel Berettas and Negev for example). Making high quality original finishes for those weapons is great way to stand out and increase you chances of making it into a case. Keep in mind each item in a case gets an equal share of the revenue.
  
  
• Vary the techniques, themes and finish types, and try to experiment with new ones. When putting together cases and capsules we look for items that vary in technique and theme. Technique is the type of artwork that is used. Graphic patterns and hand painted designs are examples of different techniques. Example for themes would be finishes that look Sci-fi or Military. If you are making finishes for a particular weapon you may want to make one with a technique or theme that is under-represented, or hasn't been attempted yet. Certain types of finishes are also underrepresented in the workshop. In particular finishes that allow for flexibility in the way a pattern is applied to a weapon. These offer players a chance to get a unique version of a weapon finish.
  
  
• Don't fixate on bold designs. Cases and capsules also contain designs that vary in saturation and contrast. Currently on the workshop we see many high contrast highly saturated designs. These designs can be identified from a distance but equally important are designs that are subtle enough to only be noticed when held, as different players have different preferences when it comes to broadcasting their weapon finish choice. Try making designs that vary in saturation and contrast. Sometimes making a subtle design is actually harder than a bold one.
  
  
• Don't forget about popularity. Getting your finish upvoted and noticed is a great way to demonstrate desirability and collect feedback that will help you iterate on it. One of the factors we use to gauge community interest is the popularity of a submission.

Hopefully this information is helpful when you are making decisions on what to work on. We look forward to seeing even more amazing work from the CS:GO Community.

The CS:GO workshop community constantly amazes us with weapon finishes and stickers of increasingly high quality. We have currently shipped over 70 weapon submissions made by the community and all together, CS:GO weapon finish creators have earned over $3 million, with each finish earning over $40,000 on average.

Since shipping the first community case, we've gathered and responded to a variety of contributor questions. Common questions include "how do I get my submission in a case?", and "what can I do better to get my work noticed?". These are useful questions to answer for all contributors, so we've outlined our answers in the form of contributor tips below:

Tips for Contributors

• Submit only high quality designs that were made by you. The entirety of the submission must be your creation; no clip art. It must be original content and if the work is the result of collaboration then every contributor must be listed in the contributor revenue share. The designs that you submit must be of high quality in execution. Showing your process is a great way to stand out and demonstrate the quality and originality of your work.
  
  
• For weapon finishes, consider making finishes for weapons that have few high quality submissions. Some weapons don’t have a lot of high quality finishes submitted for them (Duel Berettas and Negev for example). Making high quality original finishes for those weapons is great way to stand out and increase you chances of making it into a case. Keep in mind each item in a case gets an equal share of the revenue.
  
  
• Vary the techniques, themes and finish types, and try to experiment with new ones. When putting together cases and capsules we look for items that vary in technique and theme. Technique is the type of artwork that is used. Graphic patterns and hand painted designs are examples of different techniques. Example for themes would be finishes that look Sci-fi or Military. If you are making finishes for a particular weapon you may want to make one with a technique or theme that is under-represented, or hasn't been attempted yet. Certain types of finishes are also underrepresented in the workshop. In particular finishes that allow for flexibility in the way a pattern is applied to a weapon. These offer players a chance to get a unique version of a weapon finish.
  
  
• Don't fixate on bold designs. Cases and capsules also contain designs that vary in saturation and contrast. Currently on the workshop we see many high contrast highly saturated designs. These designs can be identified from a distance but equally important are designs that are subtle enough to only be noticed when held, as different players have different preferences when it comes to broadcasting their weapon finish choice. Try making designs that vary in saturation and contrast. Sometimes making a subtle design is actually harder than a bold one.
  
  
• Don't forget about popularity. Getting your finish upvoted and noticed is a great way to demonstrate desirability and collect feedback that will help you iterate on it. One of the factors we use to gauge community interest is the popularity of a submission.

Hopefully this information is helpful when you are making decisions on what to work on. We look forward to seeing even more amazing work from the CS:GO Community.