Operation Riptide, the newest operation to come to Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO) since Operation Broken Fang. Starting September 21st, the operation brought many new changes to the game, spanning from new skins to even changing part of a map that hasn’t changed in 20 years! This new operation is a big change to the game but I believe it will bring good to the game.

As with every other operation, Valve added new skins to the game. As per usual, there is an Operation Riptide case, with all the brand new skins from the Riptide collection. But what Valve also did was remake some of the older collections and make a “2021” version of them. Train, Dust, Mirage, and Vertigo all got a 2021 revamp. The 2021 Dust collection has the most flashy skins if you get a high rarity, with the chance of getting a FULL GOLD AK skin. Mirage also has a nice AWP skin, the Desert Hydra, basically a red and gold remake of the most wanted skin in the game, Dragon Lore.

Some new gameplay features were added too. Those being the ability to drop smokes, flashes, nades, and incendiaries for teammates if needed. This will really help with strats in the competitive scene. We will see how that goes. 

Another thing that changed is really really big, probably the biggest thing to happen to Counter-Strike since Ancient was forced into the mappool, Dust 2 changed. For 20 years Dust 2 has always had an opportunity to see into the enemy team’s spawn. However, to cross over to B site, the CTs would have to throw utility to be able to cross mid because they would’ve gotten picked off by the T side which would just have a player sit mid the whole round watching the cross. This was FINALLY changed, with Valve adding a wall there to block vision from T spawn to CT mid, making it easier for CTs to cross over to B and actually be able to play the game. I’m not sure this will make the map any more likeable, but I am glad that Valve is looking out for these older maps and revamping them to fit the modern day CS:GO meta.

All in all, Operation Riptide is a big operation. Between a bbno$ music kit being added to the game to 20 year old maps changing, the operation has brought big change to the game. Let’s hope that people stop complaining and just adapt because as we know Valve, they don’t care what we think anyways 🙂