Competitive

“Commit to a full match that affects your Skill Group. Buy new weapons each round with money earned and win the round by eliminating the other team or completing the objective.”
―Official description

Competitive is a mode featured in both Counter-Strike 2 and formerly Counter-Strike: Global Offensive where it was the first Counter-Strike game to include a built-in competitive mode. The mode features 18 skill groups and 9 maps. Since Counter-Strike 2, skill groups are based on each map independently, rather than having a single skill group for all maps.

Overview[]

Competitive mode picks two teams of 5 players each against each other in a 12 round per half match in Counter Strike 2 or 15 rounds per half in Global Offensive. The round time is 1 minute 55 seconds and the bomb timer is 40 seconds. It is not possible to switch sides during the game except at the halftime. Each team is randomly selected to start on the Counter-Terrorists or Terrorists. After the first 12 rounds in Counter Strike 2 or 15 in Global Offensive, the game reaches halftime and the two teams will switch sides. The first team to score 13 rounds wins the game in Counter Strike 2 and in Global Offensive it is first to 16 round wins. If both teams score 12 rounds in Counter Strike 2 or 15 rounds in Global Offensive then the match will end in a tie. If non-friend teammates has a rank then in Counter-Strike 2 only, the rank is shown during warmup period and then hidden for the duration of the match. In both Counter Strike 2 and Global Offensive the ranks are revealed to all players when the match has ended. Games can also end prematurely if one team surrenders to the other. A vote to surrender must be unanimously agreed upon, and the vote is locked until a team member abandons the match.

In Counter-Strike 2:

Maximum number of rounds is 24; first to 13 rounds wins.
No overtime - if both teams reach 12 rounds, the game ends as a tie.
Skill groups are earned on a per-map basis.
No visible "elo".
Each team gets a single minute long tactical timeout to use

In Global Offensive Long matches:

Maximum number of rounds is 30; first to 16 rounds wins.
No overtime - if both teams reach 15 rounds, the game ends as a tie.
Each team gets a single minute long tactical timeout to use
No visible "elo".

In Global Offensive, short matches:

Maximum number of rounds is 16; first to 9 rounds wins.
No overtime - if both teams reach 8 rounds, the game ends as a tie.
Each team gets a single minute long tactical timeout to use
No visible "elo".

In Global Offensive, there is an option to choose unranked or ranked matches. Non-Prime account players can only play unranked competitive.

Private Competitive[]

Private Competitive—introduced in Operation Riptide—is a way to create a private lobby for people to host custom Premier Competitive games. This requires 10 people and each lobby has a custom lobby code. The code can be shared or people can join via Steam groups. Private Competitive games do not affect XP or Skill groups.

Beginning a Match[]

Main article: Matchmaking

Competitive matchselection cs2 — Competitive Map Selection

Unlike the casual game modes, the player is given the option to choose which map will be played by using checkboxes. By default, maps from the active duty group are already selected. However, the player can choose to include maps from the reserves group and, if there is an active operation, the operations group.

Post-match Review[]

The player can re-watch a completed ranked match by clicking on the Watch tab from the main menu. The eight most recent ranked matches results will be listed and each one generates a match sharing link which can be used to download the GOTV replay for up to a week after the game has played. After a week has passed, the post-match review is deleted from Valve's servers and you are unable to download it. In addition, the eight most recent ranked match results are stored for up to two months and then subsequently deleted.

Skill Groups[]

Gallery: Skill Groups

Skillgroup1 new — Silver I Rank (Lowest)

Skillgroup18 new — The Global Elite Rank (Highest)

Skill groups were initially introduced with the October 25, 2012 update. When entering a match, the matchmaking system will try to place the player with other players around the same skill level. With the release of Counter-Strike 2, skill groups were adjusted to be calculated on a per-map basis. For example, the player can be Silver III on Mirage, but Master Guardian I on Nuke at the same time. The player has to win at least 10 matches on a map to be given a skill group for that particular map.

In Global Offensive, there is only one skill group shared across all maps. The player must win 10 games (or drawing a match after the 9th win) to gain a skill group.

In Global Offensive if a player does not participate in competitive matchmaking for 28 days, then the player's skill group will be hidden, and will require the player to win or draw an additional competitive match to be re-placed in a skill group. In addition, if the player gets a cooldown for griefing then their skill group will be hidden as well. ^[1]

In Global Offensive, Unranked competitive does not have skill groups.

Prime Status[]

The Prime Status feature was introduced as part of the April 21, 2016 update, initially acquired by adding a valid phone number to the player's Steam account (and, from June 15, 2016 onward, also required having reached the Profile Rank of Lieutenant Rank 21). With CS:GO becoming Free to Play on December 6, 2018, Prime status was changed so that it could either be acquired by reaching the Profile Rank of Lieutenant Rank 21 (no longer requiring a phone number), or could be bought for $14.99 USD/12.75€ EUR/£10.89 GBP

In the June 3, 2021 update, Prime status was changed so that it could only be acquired by being bought, and XP, Profile Ranks, item drops, and skill groups became exclusive to players with Prime status; non-Prime players still have complete access to the core gameplay but cannot play on Competitive.^[2]^[3]

Trust Factor[]

In the November 13, 2017 update, Trust Factor was implemented for a better matchmaking experience. Trust Factor is calculated by a number of factors, which include but are not limited to: hours spent playing CS:GO and other games, the age of one's Steam account, the frequency with which one is reported for cheating and whether one is eligible for Prime etc.^[4]. The exact algorithm is not divulged by Valve.

Cooldowns[]

Overview[]

If a player has abandoned a match, cheated, or otherwise has committed poor sportsmanship, the player will receive a competitive cooldown. When a player has a competitive cooldown, the player cannot participate in any competitive matches for the duration of the cooldown. The player will be notified of any existing cooldowns by a banner at the top of the main menu page stating the reason and the remaining length of the cooldown.

Cooldown Reasons[]

Most of the actions that can trigger a cooldown only count when they occur during Premier Competitive, Competitive and Wingman games.

Abandoning a match - If the player fails to reconnect in time for any reason or the player clicks the abandon button in the main menu then the player is considered abandoned and receives a cooldown. Choosing to abandon or failing to connect to the server within the warmup period is also considered match abandoning.
Team disruption - Activities such as teamkilling, excessive team damage, or a player being repeatedly vote-kicked from matches in competitive matchmaking.
Cheating - Use of 3rd party programs, scripts, or other hacking techniques in competitive or casual matchmaking
Suiciding - Excessive suiciding (e.g. jumping off a building from the map Vertigo) will result in a cooldown.
Excessive kicking or being kicked too often - Kicking or attempting to kick too many people can result in a cooldown. Being kicked too often will also result in a cooldown.
Skill placement competitive cooldown - A new player with less than 10 competitive wins is limited to two competitive wins per day.

Cooldown Lengths[]

During a cooldown period, a player cannot play any competitive games, but can still play any of the casual game modes, including community servers or locally-hosted servers running the competitive rule set.

Cooldown levels drop by 1 level after a week with no additional offenses. There is no known limit to how many levels a person can get.

Level 1 - 30 minutes
Level 2 - 2 hours
Level 3 - 24 hours
Level 4 - 7 days
Level 5 and beyond - 7 days
5 days - applied to players getting excessive griefing reports
38 days ^[5] - Minorly Disruptive, applied to Griefers
Permanent - also called a Global Cooldown; this can be from from being Overwatch Convicted - Majorly Disruptive for cheating and can be applied to Griefers for their second offence. A permanent cooldown may be received from being "Untrusted".

It is possible to receive a 10 minute cooldown^[6] due to the servers disconnecting players and it then rejecting their reconnection attempts because an update was released in the middle of your matchmaking game.

↑ Twitter video showing rank is hidden after Twitch streamer fl0m got a 38 days cooldown due to griefing Rank was hidden after Twitch streamer fl0m got a 38 days cooldown due to griefing
↑ Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Prime Status and Free to Play on Steam Support
↑ Adjustments to Non-Prime on the CS Blog
↑ The Trust Factor on the CS Blog
↑ Twitter video showing rank is hidden after Twitch streamer fl0m got a 38 days cooldown due to griefing Rank was hidden after Twitch streamer fl0m got a 38 days cooldown due to griefing
↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/bz46s5/since_when_is_the_cooldown_10_minutes/

Trivia[]

On the July 31, 2019 update, scrimmage mode was added to the game to incorporate maps in competitive, however, skill groups will not be adjusted after the match but a match abandon still issues a competitive cooldown. On the June 3, 2021 update, Scrimmage mode has been removed and replaced with Unranked Matchmaking.
Before the November 22, 2014 update, once a match has finished, players had the chance to rematch with the current teams. Like surrender votes, the vote must be unanimous, but require all 10 players to still be connected to the server. After the vote succeeds, the map will be reloaded with the same teams for another match with the same rules. If not all 10 players are connected to the server, then the vote will not be offered, and instead an error message will pop up in chat saying, "Not offering rematch because not all 10 players are connected."
The default "freeze time" is 15 seconds, rather than 6 seconds from earlier games.
Before the introduction of Panorama UI in the August 2, 2018 update, the SEAL Team 6 quote "Let's Roll" that is said when the player joins the game would occasionally glitch and stutter, making it sound like "Let's Roll-oll". The glitch gained much notoriety within the community and became a meme. A sticker in Sticker Capsule 2 was designed after the meme.