Overpass removed from CS2 Active Duty after seven yars due to low pick rate

With the release of CS2 Premier Season 5 on July 9, 2026, Overpass officially left Active Duty. The reason is straightforward: the card received the lowest percentage of peaks among all cards at IEM Cologne Major 2026. Valve focuses on the statistics of the largest competitions when forming the pool, and Overpass was unable to maintain its position. This is not the first time the card has left the rotation. In 2017, Overpass was temporarily removed from the map pool as part of Operation Hydra when it was replaced by Canals. Then the absence turned out to be short-lived - the card returned and remained in the pool until the current update. In total, Overpass spent about seven years in Active Duty, managing to become a platform for dozens of finals of major tournaments. The reaction from the professional scene was generally positive. Overpass has long been criticized for being unbalanced at a high level of play, with the CT side having too few viable play options when pressed by an experienced T-side, especially when the opponent is executing coordinated water and banana moves at the same time. At the top level, this turned into an overly predictable map with a narrow set of working schemes. The place of Overpass was taken by Cache - the map has been absent since 2019. New pool: Cache, Dust2, Mirage, Inferno, Nuke, Ancient, Anubis. For most pro players, Cache is a return to a familiar, but partially forgotten geometry. The teams will have to rebuild their tactical books, which creates intrigue in the next competitive cycle.