Loved and Hated: Top Map Picks vs Faceit Level

Today we focus on the preferred map choices based on players’ Faceit rank. Does a higher skill level affect map choice? And if yes, does it increase one’s versatility or promote specialisation in a narrower pool of maps? We analysed 65 million matches to shed some light on the matter.

There are two maps clearly winning the popularity contest across all ranks - and yes, you guessed it, those are Mirage and Inferno. Hardly a surprise to anyone, but also a completely deserved win, as both have kept CS:GO community company from the very beginning.

Third place is where some changes can be observed and players’ rank seems to become a factor - there is a clear divide in half. For players on levels 1-5, the third most popular map is another classic - Dust 2. At higher levels, the map retired from Active Duty in 2017 was overtaken by Vertigo. It could probably be because players at higher levels tend to play in a way more resembling the official tournament system.

As the most preferred maps are the ones that were the longest in active duty, the least chosen at almost every level are the two maps added last to the tournament pool - Anubis and Ancient. The only exception is the top tier Faceit where Ancient is the 4th most played map.

It is worth noting that as the players’ level increases, the dispersion in map choice frequency evens out significantly. In levels 1-3, the top 3 maps account for 70% of matches. In subsequent levels, the number of maps chosen regularly increases to 5, and among the best players, only one map is picked less than 9% of the time, accounting for quite an even distribution. It would suggest that the best players are the most versatile and play to train all possible options similarly.