The June Update to CSGO, The Non-Prime Storm and Unranked Matches
(6 votes, average: 2.00 out of 5)
Are we witnessing history in the making? Valve has brought a lot of changes to CSGO with the recent update, including a feature requested for years on end.
Let’s start from the beginning. The publishers of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have never shared too much information about groundbreaking changes in advance and barely ever foreshadowed the introduction of new features, leaving a lot up to data miners and speculants to predict what might possibly happen with the long-running franchise.
This time, however, there’s so much to digest when it comes to technical changes, that it’s hard to judge whether it’s a shock or a fulfillment long due. Let’s review all the massive updates introduced this June to CSGO!
CSGO Non Prime Accounts
First of all, a bolder line has been drawn between Prime and Non-Prime accounts. From now on it’s impossible for Non-Prime accounts to level up, thus cancelling the possibility of gaining a Prime status through continuous play. It’s obvious that from now on Prime status will be only available via paid account upgrade.
This is not the end of the sad news for those who are not willing to pay. Recent update also changed the dropping and looting system. June onwards, only Prime accounts will get a chance to receive the cases and skins after playing matches. Unless you buy Prime status, you will not get any skins from the game.
Unranked Matches
Let’s not get all doomy and gloomy, however, because now players can take part in a CSGO alternative matchmaking mode that appeared in the game. For years now the pressure of ranked matches has put a hold on effective training for many players, leaving them to simulate competitive scenarios outside to practice more without the pressure of losing their rank. Fortunately, the new CSGO update brings in unranked matchmaking.
Prime players might choose to play ranked or unranked. Non-Prime users can only play unranked matches. Non-Prime users who play unranked CSGO can play with Prime users in the same games.
How Does CSGO Matchmaking Work Now?
The basic ranked matchmaking remains the same, so don’t worry about trying to adapt. However, as a Prime user you can now choose between ranked and unranked with the use of a toggle switch next to the game mode selection. If you don’t have the Prime status, you’re limited to unranked matchmaking.
Does this influence the rank cap when choosing participants for the match? Not exactly. While the ranked games behave the same, the unranked ones still calculate your skill factor in the background, but not putting it into capped tiers. This means that you’re more likely to play with people of similar skill, but the game will not completely exclude players who are both much worse and much better than you.
Additional Changes
Aside from these groundbreaking features and alterations, there are further updates to CSGO that you might want to know about. First of all, Scrimmage is now gone, replaced by the unranked matchmaking completely.
Just three days after the big update, on June 6th, CSGO has been updated again to make some corrections to the AI Behavior Trees, allowing for more diversity and detail in decision-making algorithms. Also, if you’re fond of the recently added maps, Pitstop has been optimized and tweaked in terms of lightning maps and clipping.
What Does It Mean For CSGO Players?
Let’s look at our new premise from two sides. On one hand, theoretically, the new matchmaking setup aims at decreasing the CS GO non Prime hackers interruption in the ranking progression. The Prime paywall for ranked matches aims at straining away the easy way in for smurfs and throwaway accounts, so hanging the fruit a little higher, so to speak. What’s more, the drop rates on skins are expected to drop, potentially raising the prices of all skins in current circulations.
On the other hand, we’re still to see the eventual outcome of drawing such a hard line between the free users and Prime accounts. The unranked CSGO matches themselves are something that has been expected of Valve literally since the early days of Global Offensive. Everyone’s hopeful that it will prove useful for people to play casual matches on competitive rules more easily and provide a great training ground that doesn’t put your rank at risk. When it comes to skins, it remains to be seen whether the new drop system will result in lesser market volume.
2021 June Update Summary
Ain’t that a lot? No longer restricted to dedicated CS GO non prime servers for competitive matches, the average player might find it more beneficial to turn to Prime status. The underdogs of CSGO world will now have it harder to advance in the game’s structure, but hopefully it will result in a safer environment for everyone to play.
Any other observations you have considering the new matchmaking system? Any predictions about the future of the skin market? The comments are yours, we’d love to hear what you think about it.
