Anubis will replace Train

Valve has announced a change to the CS2 map pool: Anubis will replace Train after January 19

Developers from Valve have officially announced a change to the map lineup in Counter-Strike 2. After the end of the third season of the Premier mode, on January 19, the Train map will be removed from the active pool and replaced by Anubis.

The main reason for the change was the extremely low popularity of Train at the professional level. During 2025 the map was picked only 102 times in Tier-1 matches, which was the lowest figure among all maps in the pool.

Tournament organizers have already responded to Valve's decision. ESL has announced that the change will take effect immediately for all ESL Pro Tour tournaments. This means that Anubis will replace Train already in the upcoming qualifiers for IEM Rio, as well as at the main event Intel Extreme Masters Kraków 2026, which will be the first major event of the year in the ESL calendar.

Other major organizers, including BLAST Premier, are also expected to promptly update the map pool for their upcoming competitions in accordance with Valve's guidance. The first in line is BLAST Bounty Winter 2026.

This is the first change to the CS2 map pool in 2026. The update is aimed at revitalizing tactical diversity on the professional scene and increasing the entertainment value of matches through a more popular and dynamic map.