Cache is Back But Which Map Does it Replace?

It has finally happened. Or should I say, it is going to happen. After months of speculation and anticipation, Counter-Strike is finally re-adding Cache into the map pool. Fans have been patiently waiting and watching each Counter-Strike update for some kind of hint or nod to the map's eventual return to competitive play.

Back in May, 2025 it was announced that Valve purchased the map from FMPONE and have been quietly working on it for about a year now. Cache, which had been removed from the active duty map pool all the way back in 2019, has seen a steady increase in popularity since it was first redesigned for CS2 as a workshop map.

The CS2 competitive map pool has become quite stale over the past year. Anubis was replaced by Train in the Active Duty Map Pool on January 8th, 2025, but it only remained for about a year before being swapped out again. This has left fans curious about what might come next. Despite growing appreciation for Train, there have been no announcements about new maps or changes to the pool. Recently, FACEIT Season 8 kicked off, allowing users to vote on a new map to be added to the Elo-enabled pool. Over 148,000 users chose Cache, surpassing Vertigo and Train, to be introduced into the pool.

This sparked huge excitement and even crashed the Cache Workshop map page during the first few hours of the new FACEIT season. It was only a matter of time for Valve to really take notice and build off of this excitement. This has inevitably led us to now, where we can expect Cache to be added into the map pool in some fashion within the next week.

But what gets replaced? Mirage, Inferno, Nuke, and Ancient have all been staples in the competitive map pool for CS2 since its release back in 2023. Meanwhile, maps like Overpass, Vertigo, and Train have rotated in and out quite frequently. Dust 2 and Anubis, meanwhile, have been relatively stable, only being gone for one season at most. Everyone has gripes with each map. If it were up to me personally, I would replace Nuke in a heartbeat with Cache, no questions asked.

The most likely option, in my opinion, is either Inferno or Overpass. Inferno has been a staple in the CS Pro scene since its inception, but recently matches have felt boring to watch. Once a 4v5 situation arises, most teams opt to save, which is boring to watch. It's tough, though, as Inferno has so much history, and the pros seem to enjoy playing it enough. Overpass is the opposite side of the spectrum; most teams ban it, refusing to play it, and seemed to be content when the map was removed from the pool between Shanghai and Austin.

I think the Map pool will end up like this by next week.

Mirage

Inferno

Nuke

Ancient

Anubis

Dust 2

Cache

It will be fun to finally play Cache with my team and learn the map again. I didn't play much CS until the map was already long gone, but I am excited to finally see a major change in the pool in what feels like eons. Maybe I'll come back around to this topic next week once the map pool is confirmed.

Catch you all later!