Anubis to be featured in BLAST Premier World Final map pool

The BLAST Premier World Final will be played on the latest CS:GO update, which added Anubis to the Active Duty map pool, Dexerto has confirmed.

Valve released on November 18 an important update for CS:GO that nerfed the AWP and the M4A1-S, and added Anubis to the Active Duty map pool — the official set of maps selected by Valve for esports competitions — instead of Dust2.

The update came too soon for the BLAST Premier Fall Final, which will begin on November 23, with Nicolas Estrup, BLAST’s Chief Innovation Officer, stating that the tournament would run on a pre-update version of CS:GO.

There were mixed reactions to BLAST’s decision. Some agreed that there was simply not enough time for the participating teams to adapt to the changes in time for the event, while others, like FaZe star Robin ‘ropz’ Kool, said that it would be impossible for players to scrim on old versions of the game in the days leading up to the event in Copenhagen. This, combined with the fact that teams are now unwilling to play Dust2 as the CS:GO scene begins to adopt Anubis, has made practice for the teams attending the tournament ineffective to an extent.

Contacted by Dexerto, BLAST confirmed that the upcoming World Final event will be played on the new CS:GO update, making it the first tier-one LAN event to include Anubis, a community-created map that was added to the game in March 2020.

It will be curious to see how the update will affect the usage of the M4A1-S, which had its range modifier reduced from 0.99 to 0.94. The weapon has long been the go-to rifle choice for the CTs at the highest level of the game, making the M4A4 almost unused.

The AWP had its magazine size reduced from ten to five bullets, but that nerf has been played down by most of those who use the sniper rifle. “Nothing has changed, to be honest,” NAVI star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev said at a press conference before the BLAST event. “It’s only when you’re alone on the site [that it’s different]. You cannot miss if you want to kill all five.”

The BLAST Premier World Final will take place between December 14-18 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi as part of a three-year partnership between the tournament organizer and ADGaming. NAVI, FaZe, Vitality and IEM Rio Major winners Outsiders are the first four teams confirmed for the $1 million event, which will also feature the winner of the BLAST Premier Fall Final and three teams determined by the BLAST Global Leaderboard.