Dust 2: Frustrating, Broken and Iconic
The map we all love and hate - Take a look at some of Dust 2 best moments and the history behind it
The first version of Dust was released in Counter-Strike on the 5th. November 1999 and was called de_dust. The first version of the map was not made by a map developer or even a Valve employee, but instead, a 16-year-old boy who stumbled upon the tools to make what was soon to become the beginning of Counter-Strikes, arguably, most iconic map ever.
Whilst de_dust was a fan favorite from the beginning it wasn't a map suitable for competitive play and a task for creating a new more competitive version of Dust was set out. This lead to Dust 2 in its first form. After the release of Counter-Strike Global Offensive in 2012 Dust 2 was remodeled and was made even more popular within the Counter-Strike community. The map brought some of the most well-known highlights in professional Counter-Strike, among the infamous "Inhuman reactions" clip sparked by, at the time, Cloud9 player "Hiko".
However, with the release of CS:GO the game of Counter-Strike became more and more competitive and thereby also studied and analyzed more. The more strategic approach seemed to be the general ideal approach for the professional teams and players, which unfortunately meant little praise of the iconic map Dust 2, which enabled more individual skill-based play with its open spaces.
Many professional players have stated that they would like to see Dust 2 removed, in order to further embrace the more strategic approaches, that new and different maps bring to the table.
Despite the pro-players wishes to remove the map from the professional map-pool, statistics show that the map was played the most over the past 12 months at big events between the top 20 teams. It was played a total of 16 times with Nuke and Inferno settling at second place, having been played 11 times. This shows just how frustrating it must be for some teams to play on Dust 2, but also how immortal and an integrated part of the Counter-Strike scene, the map has grown to become.
Watch and learn more about Dust 2's history as well as its best and worst moments here:
