Unconsciously, CS:GO has been released for a decade, during which time game developers and players have created countless maps, which has also surprised thousands of game fans. However, some of these maps can be selected for esports events, allowing the world's best professional gods to gather here, while others can only stay on unofficial servers forever and only exist in entertainment bureaus, becoming a pastime for ordinary players.
The map we're going to talk about today is Cobblestone, a map that many players love and have brought many incredible highlight moments to the audience, so today we're going to review the stories that happened on this map.
Origin and development of maps
It is reported that the original version of the map of the Battle of the Castle appeared in 2000, and this map and the dust series of maps that swept CS came from the same author: the Englishman Dave Johnston. Since the public release of CS, the game developers have been mulling to create a large map with medieval characteristics, and later, the birth of the de_cstle (castle) map has made people see the dawn, but this map has not appeared in the official map pool.
When Johnston talked about his design philosophy, he said that he did not take the game's competitive requirements into account when making the map, so the map could not be listed, and after this defeat, Johnston immediately developed Castle Guild Wars, the first version of which was released in Counter-Strike BETA 6.5.
Castle Guild Wars with CS 1.6
The original version of the map continued until counter-Strike: Source was released, and after the release of the origin, the map was only updated with the new shooting engine texture, and other details remained the same until the official release of CS:GO, the map finally ushered in a major update.
On December 18, 2013, CS:GO officially released Battle of the Castle, in which the V Society was responsible for the transformation of the de_cbble, the author completely changed the map's points A and B and redesigned their basic structure.
Lord William's Castle
The castle on the map states, according to official descriptions, that the castle is located in France and belongs to Lord William, while in 2015's "Operation Blood Hunt", the territory of the castle has been bombed by terrorists led by Chace Turner for the past few years.
The castle's defenses were provided by the French National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), an elite french force, and according to the plot, Chase Turner, who led the Phoenix force after the death of the previous leader, targeted Lord William, one of the greatest supporters of the coalition, and would complete the task of annihilation at all costs. In the official narrative, when the terrorists reach their goal and destroy the castle, the castle will be in ruins and will become a map of de_cstle existing in CS 1.6 and CS origins, and Lord William's manor will be rebuilt.
Change of the official map pool of the competition
Castle Battle was officially added to the CS:GO official competitive map pool shortly after completing the reset, and the first event in the castle was ESL One Cologne in 2014, in which the map was selected 6 times, and the players of the NIP team were very fond of this map, and they also won a major victory in that event. In all the knockout rounds of that tournament they picked the map and maintained a 100% win rate, and in the end they won the championship after winning Fnatic in the finals.
NIP - ESL One Cologne 2014 Champion
In the next 3 years, the popularity of the castle did not decrease, and in the next 10 consecutive Major events, this map was selected for the event map, the last of which was the 2018 Boston E League Major. What's more worth mentioning is that in those 10 majors, the teams that chose this map and won this map basically won the championship.
The only exception is the 2017 PGL Krakow Major, where the Immortals team lost two maps in a row to concede the championship after defeating Gambit 16:4 on the Battle of the Castle map in the finals, and after the match, zeus players said the legendary classic, the declaration of love: ": olofmeister!" I love you！ ”
If you take a quick look at the competitions of those years major, you will find that almost every two races will pick the castle. The map shows a wealth of tactical diversity and is a rare good map that is very balanced for both sides of the match.
None of this, however, ultimately persuaded the V Society to keep the Battle of the Castle in the official Competitive Map Pool. In 2018, Castle Battle was removed from the Competitive Map Pool and replaced with a new version of Dust2. This decision also caused an uproar at the time, the community was in an uproar, players and players were opposed to this decision, but the V Society still insisted on its own opinion, and finally the Castle Battle completely bid farewell to the official competitive map pool.
Map characteristics
Castle Guild Wars This unique feature of this map is that it is large, huge area, special terrain, all allow the commanders of each team to develop complex tactical strategies, sound east and west, change tactics, in addition, there is almost no air wall in the castle, players can use smoke bombs throughout the map, which further expands the tactical potential of the map. All in all, Castle Battle is very attractive to players and viewers who love tactical extensions.
Not only does the huge map affect the spread of tactical strategy, but the guild battles in the castle also significantly enhance the importance of snipers in the team. In the absence of a good sniper, it is very difficult to make a result on the castle. With the rise in sniper levels in recent years, it should be very interesting to see a match played on the castle.
The current state of the castle
After the 2018 Boston E League Major, the Kasbah map was officially removed from the Competitive Map Pool and sent for redo. Players didn't wait long, and in October of that year, the V Society launched a new version of Castle Battle during the Halloween event, and the V Society's operation this time completely announced the end of the map - the developers greatly weakened the CT side in this map, and the popularity of the map in the official match dropped sharply, so in March 2019, the V Society transferred it to the back-up list and then removed it from the official map pool.
In the following years, although many players asked the V Society to return the castle to the old version or remaster, the V Society chose to ignore it every time, and now, the gunfire of the castle is still there, but it is like a world away, leaving only the old dream of the castle, so that players can carefully reminisce.