Nerf of AWP CS:GO: will it turn the game upside down?
Recently, an update to CS:GO was released, which immediately sparked widespread interest. The main innovation was reducing the number of bullets for AWP rifle. Immediately, several professional players commented negatively on this patch, saying that this update would kill the game. In contrast to them, the rest of the cyberneticists took a positive view of this fix from Valve. Who is right, and will this patch add balance to the game? Let's find out together with Cyber-sport.io!
Will the AWP nerf change CS:GO?
I wouldn't say that it has dramatically, but I wouldn't say that it hasn't had any effect at all. Now you should be more careful with wasting bullets because only 5 of them exist. Previously, you could shoot a couple of rounds into the smoke, hoping for a free frag, shoot at random to mark your position, and morally disconcert your enemies.
It is evident that the snipers will be highly economical with their shots, calibrating each shot to ensure it will be fatal. The main problem becomes frequent reloading and reloading. It means you can not thoroughly check the position, partially losing control. How many moments are waiting for us when, having fired all the ammunition, the sniper will be caught reloading?
Was the AWP’s fix necessary?
More likely yes than no. Valve changed the game's balance after dozens of attempts, first nerfing the basic devices like the AK-47 and M4A4, then adding to the meta with SG 553 and AUG, then shifting the focus from the M4A4 to the M4A1s, and so on. The point is that the sniper rifles were not touched, they remained in some suspension, waiting for their upgrade.
The best sniper on the planet noticed that the AWP needed a fix:
I wouldn't say that the AWP is an imbalanced weapon, as it was in 2014. But I think you could make five rounds in a clip. If you miss twice, you give three frags at most
A similar tone of voice was picked up by other cool planet snipers like m0NESY and NAF.
Thoughts on AWP nerf
Since the game's creation, the AWP immediately fell in love with many players because it has a feature known to all "one shot - one kill". This feature allowed sniper weapon enthusiasts not to release the terrorists, killing them one by one, or vice versa, to protect the bomb, killing all alone. The AWP is the perfect weapon to hold a position from medium/long range, you kill one enemy after another, and there is no way your opponents can stop you. And even if they do, they will suffer numerous casualties.
Ukrainian sniper from NaVi s1mple commented on his own words above:
I said eight months ago, maybe nine, that they needed to change the AWP. They heard me 9 months later. Honestly, nothing has changed. The only thing is, when you're alone on a point and you get split, you can't miss if you want to kill all five of them
Or here's what major-champion Fl1t thinks about it:
I think the AWP nerf is fair. It seems to me that snipers will now be more careful when shooting smokey, and because of the long reload time will start counting ammo
And here's what regular CS:GO fans are saying on Reddit at all:
That is a good nerf, doesn’t do a whole lot to the AWPers ability to kill but discourages random spamming through smokes and walls which leads to unfair one-shot kills
Summing it all up, people are more likely to agree that the AWP fix isn't a fix of it as a device at all, but a game style of players with the AWP, because now it's changed, as we found out. Please note on this patch in the comments your opinion is necessary for us. Share your minds with Cyber-sport.io. Subscribe and follow the latest eSports news!
