Getting started with your Counter-Strike 2 server

Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) replaced CS:GO in 2023 with the Source 2 engine. Community server support has evolved with the engine; your server uses Valve's standard SRCDS approach.

First Boot

1. Open your Counter-Strike 2 game server in the panel.

2. Click Start.

3. First boot downloads CS2 server files (about 35 GB), which takes 20 to 30 minutes.

4. When you see VAC secure mode is activated and Listening on, you're ready.

To connect: in CS2, open the developer console (must be enabled in settings) with ~ and:

connect 203.0.113.10:27015

Map Cycle

CS2 rotates maps from a map group or from a Steam Workshop collection. It does not rotate them from a mapcycle.txt file the way CS:GO and the older Source games did.

Map groups are KeyValues blocks in game/csgo/gamemodes_server.txt, the file that overrides the gamemodes.txt Valve ships. There is no cfg/mapgroup_<groupname>.cfg in CS2 - if you are following a CS:GO guide that sends you there, the file will not exist. Pick a group with the Startup tab's Mapgroup field (or +mapgroup mg_active on the command line), and set the boot map with the Map field. The other file you will spend time in is server.cfg - the CS2 server.cfg reference breaks down every setting worth changing.

Active Duty is not a fixed list. Valve rotates it with each Premier season, so any list published in a guide has a shelf life. As of Premier Season Five (8 July 2026) it is Ancient, Anubis, Cache, Dust 2, Inferno, Mirage and Nuke - Cache came in and Overpass went out. Rather than trusting that, run print_mapgroup_sv in the Console tab and the server will print the group it is actually running and the maps inside it.

mapcycle.txt does not drive rotation in CS2

mapcyclefile still exists in the CS2 binary but is flagged development-only, so the classic Source mapcycle.txt workflow is not a supported way to rotate maps on a retail CS2 server. A config that sets it will look like it applied and then do nothing. Use a map group, or a Workshop collection - how to add Steam Workshop maps covers collections, host_workshop_map and the rest of the Workshop commands in full.

To force a specific map on boot, set the Map field to de_mirage (or your preferred map).

Practice / 1v1 / Retake Servers

CS2 has popular community modes that you can replicate. Each needs a plugin, so work through the CS2 plugin install guide first - none of the modes below run on a stock server. If you are setting up scrims or matches rather than a public practice server, running competitive matches covers the match-config side instead.

Retake Server

1. Install CS2Fixes and the Retake plugin.
2. Configure retake spawns and scenarios in the plugin's config.
3. Use a retake config file in cfg/server.cfg with mp_warmuptime 999, mp_buy_anywhere 1, scripted bombsites.

1v1 Arena

1. Install a 1v1 arena plugin (community-built for CS2).
2. Maps are aim-arena style, and the plugin shuffles players into 1v1 brackets.

KZ / Surf

1. Install cs2kz-metamod (KZGlobalTeam) - the Source 2 KZ implementation, and a shipping Metamod plugin rather than a plan. It is still pre-1.0 and releases land continuously, so treat it as software you update rather than install once. Metamod:Source has to be in place first; the CS2 plugin install guide covers that.
2. Load KZ or surf maps from the Workshop - how to add Steam Workshop maps covers host_workshop_map and collections.

Game Server Login Token (GSLT)

To run a public CS2 server visible in community browsers:

1. Visit steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers.

2. Generate a token for CS2 (app ID 730).

3. Set the token in the Startup tab's GSLT field. Admin access is separate - see CS2 admin setup.

4. Restart.

No token means no browser listing

Without GSLT, the server can be joined by IP but won't appear in the community browser.

Performance Tips

There is no tickrate for you to choose. Valve lists tick-rate-independent gameplay as one of Counter-Strike 2's headline features. Rather than resolving the world only at discrete ticks, CS2 records the exact sub-tick instant a shot is fired, a movement key is pressed or a grenade leaves the hand, and acts on that timestamp - so shot and movement registration no longer hinge on how often the server ticks.

Two things follow from that if you are coming from CS:GO:

• Shopping for "128-tick" does not carry over. -tickrate is not one of the CS2 dedicated-server command-line parameters Valve documents, and there is no tickrate convar in the CS2 command list. No launch flag makes a CS2 server tick faster.
• The CS:GO rate convars did not all survive. sv_maxupdaterate in particular is not present in CS2, so a server.cfg ported straight from a CS:GO server carries a line that does nothing. CS2 server commands lists what the retail build actually exposes.

Schedule daily restarts; CS2 has memory creep similar to CS:GO.

Backups

CS2 server configs and custom maps are the only critical data. The panel Backups tab handles them. Daily snapshots are fine.

Common Issues

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