MR12 is one of the biggest changes in Counter-Strike 2. There has much been speculation about what impact this will have on the professional esports scene as well as pubs. We’ve seen it in action across the Group Stage of IEM Sydney 2023, and now we know how it plays in the pro scene. We’ve got a few thoughts about the whole thing – both good and bad.

Credit: Daniel Morris

What is MR12?

If you’re new to Counter-Strike, you might be asking – what is MR12? MR12 means 12 maximum rounds per half as opposed to 15 in CS:GO. This change follows in the footsteps of CS 1.6, and more recently, Valorant.

This might seem like a small change, but as IEM Sydney 2023 has shown, it has a drastic impact on gameplay. Let’s explore more.

A Broken Economy

Credit: Daniel Morris

The big problem with MR12 right now is the economy. With CS2’s release, Valve made no changes to the in-game economy which had been tweaked to perfection over a decade for MR15. This meant that ‘saving’ became meta, and two consecutive eco rounds were not uncommon. When you’ve got 15 rounds to play with, that’s fine. With 12… not so much.

The outcome is the pistol rounds becoming more important than ever. If you lose the pistol, you might have to eco-round your way to a 3:0 deficit before you’ve even had a gun round! We’ve already seen this at IEM Sydney 2023, and it’s a problem. Our solution is simple – $1900 becomes the minimum loss bonus. This makes the decision to take an eco round much rarer, yet more effective.

If we’re committing to MR12 in CS2, the best-of-one format needs to be obliterated, too. It always encouraged freak results – not in the exciting, underdog way either. Results are proving to be genuinely random now, which is terrible for CS2 esports.

The Purpose of MR12

Ultimately, the purpose of MR12 in Counter-Strike 2 is clear – to reduce game times. MR12 certainly achieves this, but there were other solutions. Reducing the round times by ten seconds, as well as reducing the bomb timer to 35 seconds were already featured in CS:GO years ago.

There’s a feeling that reverting to these settings could’ve avoided the economy problems caused by MR12 in Counter-Strike 2. Instead, Valve went nuclear, and now results feel random in pro play. At least we know there are solutions if MR12 is a huge issue in the long run.

Casual Play

The reason the MR12 Counter-Strike 2 problems are such a shame is that it feels great in casual play. Games pass in a breeze – the perfect length. Only when a match goes to overtime do you realize just how bloated MR15 can feel at times.

That’s why the solution is unclear. Do we commit to tweaking MR12, or go back to MR15 (with a couple of adjustments)? Only time will tell.