Cache set for triumphant return to Counter-Strike

Fan favourite map Cache looks set to return to the game with Valve teasing its imminent return as early as next week.

While it will likely look a little different this time around, everyone knows and most of us love Cache and its re-addition is sure to be a popular choice, even if not as part of the Active Duty map pool just yet.

Introducing it straight into Active Duty would be a chaotic decision with the Major round the corner, but at least it might halt the Vitality freight train. Such a big change to pro play after Major spots have been locked is surely too bizarre even for a company like Valve who love to break the meta at inopportune moments.

It is however not entirely unlikely that the map might be brought in after the Major, with two months of testing and tweaking behind it, with plenty of options for removal within the pool.

Usually, Cache is considered quite a 'puggy' map, and as such a popular pug map like Mirage, Inferno or Ancient would be the ideal switch-out. Personally, we don't think of Mirage as all that puggy especially in pro play, and Cache would be a welcome addition alongside it, while Ancient is one of the most exciting maps to watch.

Anubis has consistently had issues with its bottlenecks and being a lot of teams' permaban, though it is being played a bit more of late. Overpass is probably not on the chopping block, and Nuke is a legendary map that remains a litmus test for great teams.

Dust 2 would be an interesting one to drop out as it shares a similar style with a little less depth versus Cache, while Inferno has, in our opinion, become a difficult watch. Anubis is generally the least played map, and often that's how Valve make the decision, though nobody can be quite sure.

We don't have confirmation that Cache will even be in Active Duty, but it does feel like a natural progression.