New Decision From Valve Hides Ranked Play Behind Paywall For Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Although Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO)  arrived nearly a decade ago, ten years next August, the game continues to thrive across the globe in terms of its concurrent player base and the growing competitive esports organized for the game. But, the largest step made for the game since launching is its free-to-play release. Now more than two years ago, anyone can drop into CSGO and play as they would if they bought the game.

Even more, players could access all game modes and even earn a placement in ranked play as well when competing online. However, that looks to be changing according to a new update administered for the game. According to a new blog post from Valve, a new Unranked Mode will be going live for CSGO.

More notably is that the mode will be uniquely available for players that did not pay for Prime. Although Prime owners can enter unranked as well, those that don’t pay are unable to play for ranked placement leading forward.

Along with all the gameplay that we made available for free, new players had access to drops, Ranks, Skill Groups, and a free path to Prime matchmaking. Unfortunately, over time, those benefits have become an incentive for bad actors to hurt the experience of both new and existing players. So today we’re revising the offering for new players.

New players can still play every game mode, play on community servers, and play workshop maps. However, they will no longer receive XP, Ranks, drops, or Skill Groups; those features are now exclusively available to Prime Status players.

New players can still upgrade to Prime by purchasing the Prime Status Upgrade from the Steam store, however there is no longer a free path to Prime. And if you purchase the upgrade in the next two weeks, your current Skill Group and XP progress will carry over.

Originally, CSGO offered a free ‘path to Prime’ when playing in-game. However, Valve believed that the offer soon led to ill-minded playstyles and ultimately decided to pull the feature altogether. Now, the only opportunity to play for a Skill Group will be handled by purchasing Prime status for CSGO.

In other related news to CSGO regarding Rectify, we recently unveiled our new CSGO Academy Team. Currently, the roster’s placing sits at 8-1. You can read the initial announcement by heading here.

Are you in support of the new decision by Valve?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is out now for PC.

Source: Valve