Counter-Strike 2 Update Raises Rush’s Countdown From 7 to 14 Seconds

The update also explains pixel-based crosshair sizing, adds half-outlines and a static square style, and fixes several reload animations.

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Tactical soldiers move through a ruined urban combat area beneath a large circular countdown graphic. — Conceptual artwork depicting Rush round countdown timing in Counter-Strike 2.

Valve’s latest Counter-Strike 2 update changes how long Rush rounds can continue after eliminations, raising the maximum countdown-after-elimination time from 7 seconds to 14 seconds on end rooms and Convoy. The patch also expands the game’s crosshair options with clearer pixel-based settings, a half-outline option, and a static square style. Before this timing follow-up, Valve had launched Rush as a queued 3v3 mode with randomly selected battle arenas and revised Premier’s map-selection process in the Rush launch update.

Rush receives a few other timing changes. The countdown does not activate when an entire team dies through suicides, team kills, and/or disconnects. Warmup time after all players connect, freeze time, and technical timeout time are reduced, while several map gaps and clipping problems receive fixes. Valve details the changes in its Steam announcement.

Crosshair settings now use pixel measurements for thickness and length instead of the previous arbitrary scale. The system still rescales those values when the display resolution changes, keeping the crosshair proportional. A dynamic crosshair also has a new 64-pixel minimum spread distance, which is intended to show weapon spread and inaccuracy more clearly.

Miscellaneous fixes cover incorrect reload animations for left-handed viewmodels, thirdperson player models, and firstperson Dual Berettas. Clan tags will also appear in death notices.

Counter-Strike 2 Patch Notes

The Rush section focuses on round timing and map cleanup. Crosshair changes cover measurement behavior, new styles, outline controls, and dynamic spread, while the remaining fixes address reload animations and death notices.

[ RUSH ]

Increased the maximum countdown-after-elimination time from 7 seconds to 14 seconds on end rooms and Convoy.
The countdown-after-elimination time does not activate in cases where an entire team dies to suicides, team kills, and/or disconnects.
Warmup time once all players have connected, freeze time, and technical timeout time are all reduced.
Various gap fixes and clipping adjustments.

[ CROSSHAIR ]

Some additional information about the new crosshair system:
- The new crosshair thickness and length units are in pixels. In the past, the values were defined with an arbitrary scale and converted to pixels based on display resolution so the same value would result in different pixel counts at different resolutions. With the new settings, if you want a 1-pixel wide crosshair with a bar length of 8 pixels and a gap of 4 pixels, then you would set: thickness = 1, length = 8, and gap = 4.
- Please be aware that the new crosshair system automatically rescales pixel counts when the display resolution changes. For example, if a crosshair was configured at display resolution 1280×720 with a thickness of 2 pixels and then the display resolution changes to 2560×1440, it will now automatically rescale the thickness to 4 pixels so that it remains proportionally the same as when it was configured.

Added option to draw half-outlines. This will only draw the top-left portions of the outline for a crosshair.
Fixed a bug preventing 0 gap width from being respected.
Added a static square crosshair style
Reduced the minimum dynamic spread distance to 64 pixels. The new dynamic crosshair styles will show you the real weapon spread and inaccuracy and the ‘Dynamic Spread Limit’ setting is a limit on how far the crosshair will spread at maximum inaccuracy and spread. There is a baseline spread distance of 64 pixels which covers the weapons with the largest spread so that players can better understand how accurate they actually are with their equipped weapon.

[ MISC ]

Fixed a case where left-handed viewmodels would animate incorrectly while silent reloading.
Fixed a case where thirdperson player models would animate too fast while silent reloading.
Fixed a case where firstperson Dual Berettas would animate incorrectly while reloading.
Clan tags now appear in death notices.

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Counter-Strike 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer tactical first-person shooter developed and published by Valve. Released in September 2023, it is the fifth main entry in the Counter-Strike series and serves as a direct replacement for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam. Two teams, Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, compete in objective-based rounds across modes such as bomb defusal and hostage rescue. Built on the Source 2 engine, the game introduced volumetric smoke physics, revised weapon handling, and a new sub-tick server architecture. It inherited all cosmetic items from its predecessor and features both a map-specific Competitive mode and a numerically ranked Premier mode.