Valve adds Ancient, removes Train from CS:GO active duty map pool

With the first set of Regional Major Ranking CS:GO events set to start soon, Valve is spicing up the scene ahead of the Stockholm major with a big change to the active duty map pool. Train has been removed, and Ancient has been activated.

Ancient was introduced in December 2020 as part of Operation Broken Fang, which has now concluded. The new map, an homage to a previous bomb defusal map called Aztec, was designed to be a competitive map when it was released. Set in an ancient temple and filled with mossy cobblestone and murky pits, Ancient is the most recent new addition to the active duty map pool since Vertigo in 2019 (Vertigo was officially released in 2012).

As part of Broken Fang’s conclusion, Ancient has received a couple of tweaks, mostly on A site with some re-working and the addition of another CT path into site. They’ve also added a plateau for long range fights into tunnels, and tweaked B site only slightly.

With the addition of Ancient comes the subtraction of Train. Train was re-introduced in December 2014 after extensive visual and gameplay changes, and was officially added back into the active duty map pool in March 2015.

While this will certainly shake things up long-term, players prepping for Flashpoint 3 won’t have to throw their Trains strats in the trash at the last minute. Valve confirmed in a tweet replying to Fnatic’s Jesper “JW” Wecksell that the old map pool will be used at upcoming RMR events.