Counter-Strike 2 Ranks Explained

In a significant shift from the traditional methods of competitive play, Counter-Strike 2 now offers different rank and rating based on your preferred game mode: Competitive or Premier mode. We'll go in-depth about both of these, but let's start off with the latest addition to the competitive Counter Strike scene.

The New Premier Mode

The two teams take turns to ban off maps until only one map remains to be played.

The Premier Mode comes with a new rating system and after winning 10 Premier matches, players will receive their initial rating. This rating is separate from their Competitive matchmaking rank and ranges from 0 to 30,000+ ELO, divided into seven colors.

The rating is influenced by various factors after each game, with the opposing team's total rating having the most significant impact. Playing against teams with higher ratings will result in gaining more points than playing against lower-rated opponents. Other factors such as in-game performance, including kills, death ratio, MVPs, total damage, and ADR (Average Damage per Round), also influence the amount of rating points you win or lose.

A new addition to the rating system is leaderboards, allowing players to see who the top performers are among their friends, in their region, and globally. To be featured on these leaderboards, players must have Prime status and hold the highest rating among the top 1000 players.

This new rating system gives players a newfound motivation to compete in Premiere mode, as they can track their progress more accurately and strive to improve their rating. It is clear that the developers at CS2 learned a thing or two from third party tournament & leaderboard organizers like GameChampions and FACEIT, as this is clearly a strategic move by Valve to incorporate a similar ranking system that has been loved by pro and competitive players for over a decade.

CS2 Premier Ranks (compared to CS:GO)

The Premier Rating system will rank you in a color ranging from gray to yellow  This rating allows players to track their progress and see how close they are to ranking up or down. Since it's a new system, players have tried to compare it to the previous ranking system used in CS:GO.

Here's the best comparison so far:

0 – 4999 (Grey Silver): Silver – Silver Elite Master

5000 – 9999 (Light Blue): Gold Nova – Master Guardian

10000 – 14999 (Blue): Master Guardian – Legendary Eagle

15000 – 19999 (Purple): Legendary Eagle – Supreme Master First Class

20000 – 24999 (Pink): Supreme Master First Class – Global Elite

25000 – 29999 (Red): Upper Global Elite

30000+ (Yellow): Top Ranked Global Elite players

Revamped Competitive Mode 

For those missing the traditional way of ranked play from CS:GO, the Competitive Mode in Counter Strike 2 offers a similar experience. It allows you to choose your favorite maps and queue into them. This mode also brings back the good old CS:GO ranks, offering you a chance to climb from Silver to Global Elite. 

One Map, One Rank

A welcomed feature is that you'll have a separate rank on each map. This is especially great for beginners as they have a chance to fully learn the maps before being rushed into strong competition.

All CS2 Competitive Ranks 

We fondly remember these 18 ranks and tiers, from Silver to Global Elite, as they were also present in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Silver ➤ Gold Nova ➤ Master Guardian ➤ Legendary Eagle ➤ Supreme Master First Class ➤ The Global Elite

CS2 Rank Distribution 

If you're wondering how well you fare compared to other players, check out this rank distribution in Counter Strike 2. We'll look at the spread in Competitive mode as well as the new Premier Rating rank.

Competitive Mode User Distribution

Let's start off with the Competitive Mode. We've grouped the lower tiers for clarity:

Silver (grouped): 27.5%

Gold Nova (grouped): 29.4%

Master Guardian (grouped): 19.5%

Master Guardian II: 5.5%

Master Guardian Elite: 4.2%

Distinguished Master Guardian: 4.1%

Legendary Eagle: 3.2%

Legendary Eagle Master: 3.2%

Supreme Master First Class: 2.6%

Global Elite: 0.8%

Premier Rating Player Distribution

Now, let's check out the Premier Rating distribution:

Source: Leetify

It's the typical bell curve often seen in competitive ladders, with a majority of players placed somewhere in the middle.

And with that our Counter Strike 2 ranks guide comes to an end. We hope you learned something and got motivated to climb the ladders in the two different ranked modes!