ESL announces map pool switch

Following Valve's announcement earlier this week on Train making it into the map pool and retiring Vertigo for the time being, ESL will adapt the change and make the switch to the new map pool following BLAST's announcement on adapting the map pool at BLAST Bounty. ESL's upcoming officials at ESEA Advanced, ESL Challenger League and IEM Katowice will feature the new map pool.

HLTV has confirmed that PGL has also expressed their intent to make to switch to the new map pool that includes Train, starting this February at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025.

After pros and casuals expressing their discontent towards Vertigo's place in the active duty map pool, the map is finally set to retire from the active duty map pool, making way for Counter-Strike 2's latest addition- Train. Vertigo is among the least played maps in the competitive space in 2024, only marginally ahead of Dust2 which was added halfway into the year.

A reworked train returned to Counter-Strike in November, fully leveraging the capabilities of the Source 2 engine to deliver stunning visuals. Certain areas of the map like pop-dog were overhauled to provide a fresh gameplay experience. The map is set in a rainy environment which once against takes full advantage of Source 2's water physics.