Counter-Strike: Global Offensive introduced a brand new operation on Tuesday called Operation Riptide. Operation Riptide will bring new maps, new missions, and new game modes for the game for the duration of the operation. It will also bring the brand new Operation Riptide battle pass with new skins for your agent and weapons.

In addition to the new operation, they introduced a new short competitive mode, weapon balances for the M4A1-S, Deagle, and Dualies, and a few tweaks for Dust 2, Inferno, and Ancient. Here is everything you need to know about the new operation.

Operation Riptide content

The new operation will feature five new community maps: 

• a community park (?) map called Insertion ll
• a light tower map called Basalt
• a sawmill map called County
• a modernist house map called Extraction
• a castle-themed map called Ravine.

The new Operation will have the Riptide Agent collection available, which includes 21 new variants. The CT variants are Navy SEAL and French Gendarmerie-themed, with some even featuring actual frogman diving equipment. There are also terrorist skins that bring a Rambo vibe with their Guerilla Warfare get-up. 

Tiptide cases also come with 17 new community-designed weapon finishes, including the Gamma Doppler knives as their special rare items.

You can check out the complete Riptide content here.

Matchmaking and Game mode updates

They are brought some major matchmaking changes to the game in Tuesday's update.

Firstly, they introduced their new Private Matchmaking Queues, which will let players generate a "queue code" and share it with their friends to create a private Premiere match on Valve's official servers. You can also use steam groups to play a match with members of that group.

Secondly, they added a new short version of competitive matchmaking. This version will be 16 rounds long, rather than the possible 30 rounds long. You will be able to queue for either mode, or both if you don't have a preference, and both modes will contribute to your unified competitive ranking. 

In regards to new mode updates, demolition had its maximum rounds reduced to 10 and eliminated the team swap at half time. They also reduced the round time and adjusts the weapon progression in the mode, according to the patch notes. Arms race also had its weapon progression adjusts, and players can now earn health shots after three kills to help recover any minor damage they may have taken.

Additionally, there are now three deathmatch styles:

• Team vs Team
• Free for all
• Classic

Gameplay Changes: M4A1-S buff, Deagle Nerf, Grenades droppable

The update also came with a few gameplay adjustments, that while they may seem small, are huge in a game like CS:GO. They reduced the body damage on the Deagle, increasing the premium on headshots for the weapon even more than before. The M4A1-S has its body damage increased, which will likely lead to a significant increase in its adoption as a gun.

The Dualies had their price reduced to $300, making them a more attractive option perhaps. They also added the Riot Shield heavy weapon to the buy menu for some modes, currently only CTs on Casual Hostage maps. 

Grenades are also now droppable, a quality of life change that has been requested and rumored for some time now. This will allow people to easily swap between grenades on the group or share grenades with each other mid-round.

Map Changes: Dust 2 visibility, Inferno bug fixes, Ancient bombsight changes

CS:GO's most iconic map, Dust 2, got some visibility improvements in the new update. According to the patch notes, there is a slight visibility tweak from T spawn through mid and better visibility into the B back site from tunnels.

Inferno got a few minor updates, including among other things making the gate at the top of banana solid now. They also revised the 1v1 layout of this map.

Ancient had its plantable area on both bombsides expanded in the new update. They also fixed bullet penetration issues on some of the plywood surfaces around the map and added 1v1 arenas to it for warm up.