Sometimes several small tweaks can bring a big change in the bigger picture. Let’s review the butterfly effect of Nov 2022 CSGO Update.
It’s obvious that at this point some news about updating the game to Source 2 or a new operation would be much more welcome than some game fixes, but
Which Weapons Were Nerfed in CS:GO?
Two of four bullet points from the November update consider changes to weapon functioning. Both of these changes reduce the effectiveness of affected rifles in two different ways.
Less Bullets For AWP
The biggest shock comes with changes to the AWP clip capacity. The canonical sniper rifle’s bullet count has been cut in half, from 10 to 5 shots per clip. What might seem like a very minor change might be much more daring than it seems.
The AWP reloading time is not very long, but the need to reload faster has its effect. It scales down the aggressiveness with which you can engage in exchange of fire. Upcoming months will show if it causes AWPers to change the way they enter combat.
M4A1-S Deals Less Damage In Long Range
This would be the easiest way to describe it, but it’s actually a little fetched. What has changed is the damage multiplier of the weapon. Now the damage is calculated in distance by 0.94 instead of old 0.99. Again, seems like a small change, but is far from being insignificant.
Recent Esports.GG article has made detailed calculations on the damage change per distance. Basically, with body shot full damage of 27pts at point blank, it goes down to 20 instead of 26 at 2000 distance units. This renders it comparably as effective as M4A4 in this range. Alas, the damage is going even lower than its non-silenced counterpart’s at growing distances.
The change screams tremendous consequence for the CT meta. You don’t have to look far into gameplays to see how effective M4A1-S was for accurate players trying to hold mid-to-long distance from their enemies. Overall, there’s a lot of fear of balance being forcefully pushed back into the T territory to seemingly counterbalance the pressure on their side in the bomb scenario.
Why Are Rifles Nerfed?
Let’s not get too philosophical. Changes like these are usually made to stir the player base up, but not in a negative way. Some variety in the meta is needed to see if current gameplay can benefit from small shifts of power. There’s nothing worse for a competitive multiplayer game than for the global community to discover that you can learn a few tricks and that’s all.
Of course, CS:GO is far from that and it boasts being one of the most tactical shooters in its genre. However, seeing the same plays for the millionth time is neither very constructive nor motivating. Making the game constantly interesting is not only in the hands of ingenious players.
After all, avid players will find nerfs and buffs a minor inconvenience on the way. While many are quick and happy to proclaim that “CS:GO is dying”, it’s far from true, and relying less on one weapon against the other will not ruin the whole game for everybody. Not long ago everybody was lamenting the changes to SG553, and still, it grew to be the new normal.
November Changes To CSGO – Summary
A little sneaky update last weekend has removed Dust 2 from the Active map pool, added Anubis into the Competitive map pool and nerfed two weapons. AWP now only has 5 ammo in its clip and M4A1-S has a smaller damage range multiplier, making it much less effective on mid-to-long distances.
Let us know when you give the rifles a spin after the nerf – were the changes worth it? Also, fingers crossed for an Anubis skin collection. Let’s see what the future brings!