Ancient callouts come in two layers: the place names CS2 prints on your radar, and the shorter nicknames teams use on voice. On Ancient the two overlap, because Valve's own patch notes and map guide use several of the nicknames, Donut above all. This guide groups both by area and describes each spot from the radar.
How Ancient callouts work in CS2
Every area of a CS2 map has an official place name. It appears next to a teammate's name in game and is recorded in demos. MapSense, a demo viewer that read the names from 30 Ancient demos, counts 18 on Ancient. All of them are in the tables below.
Players name smaller spots inside those areas, and some of the nicknames have made it into Valve's writing. The June 2022 release notes put "cave" and "donut" in quotation marks, the December 2022 notes mention the "red house top of mid", and the official map guide that ships with the game has lineups titled Donut Smoke and Top Mid Smoke. Every name below is either on the radar or backed by at least two sources.
The Ancient layout at a glance
Picture the radar with CT spawn at the top and T spawn at the bottom. Bombsite A sits on the left and Bombsite B on the right, the opposite of Anubis. From T spawn, one route climbs the left side to A, one runs through Middle, and one heads right through the flooded Tunnel towards B.
Ancient arrived with Operation Broken Fang in December 2020 and has been in the Active Duty pool since May 2021, as our map pool history shows. The Counter-Strike Wiki notes that each bombsite has its own colour: orange for A, pale blue for B.
T side and the B approach
| Area | Callout | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| T side | T Spawn | The Terrorist start at the bottom of the radar |
| T side | Tunnel | The tunnel in knee-deep water leading right out of T spawn |
| T side | Water | The short flooded stretch just past Tunnel |
| B approach | Ruins | A small area with boxes between Water and the double doors towards Ramp |
| B approach | T Side Lower | The low ground before Ramp, usually called T Lower |
| B approach | Ramp | The slope from T Lower up to Bombsite B |
| B approach | T Side Upper | The upper T-side area between Middle and T Lower |
| A approach | Outside | The area left of T spawn, on the way up to Main Hall |
| A approach | Main Hall | The T corridor on the far left that leads to A, called A Main |
Players and Valve's patch notes call Main Hall A Main. The Counter-Strike Wiki notes that it splits into two corridors before the site.
Mid callouts
| Area | Callout | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| Mid | Middle | The open centre of the map, called Mid |
| Mid | Top of Mid | The upper end of mid towards CT spawn, called Top Mid |
| Mid | Red | A small raised room at the top of mid on the CT side |
| CT side | House | The building between CT spawn and Top of Mid |
| Mid to A | Side Hall | The radar's name for the route from mid up to Bombsite A |
| Mid to A | Donut | The room on that route that opens onto A |
Donut is the clearest case of a nickname becoming official. The Counter-Strike Wiki credits the name to a poll run by the official CS:GO account on Twitter, and Valve has used it since in patch notes and the map guide. Red is backed twice over: Hotspawn's guide describes it as the small raised room at the top of mid, and Valve's December 2022 notes flattened the cubbies in the "red house top of mid".
A site callouts
| Area | Callout | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| A site | Bombsite A | The site on the left of the radar, set between two temples |
| A site | A Main | The T entrance from Main Hall; Donut is the second, from mid |
| A site | Boost | The raised planter to the right as Ts come out of A Main |
| A site | Plat | A raised platform on the site, opposite A Main |
| A site | Temple | The enclosed temple at the back of the site, on the CT side |
A Valve patch in May 2021, listed in the Counter-Strike Wiki's changelog, called it the "boost planter near A main". The wiki names the boost, Donut, Temple, the boxes and the platform opposite A Main as places CTs hold A from. Temple changed in August 2025, when HLTV reported that players could no longer hold A Main from inside it.
B site callouts
| Area | Callout | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| B site | Bombsite B | The site on the right of the radar, built around a central pillar |
| B site | Pillar | The large pillar in the middle of B |
| B site | Ramp | The main T entrance, up from T Lower |
| B site | Side Entrance | The radar's name for the area between mid and B, where the second T route comes in |
| B site | Cheetah | The T end of that second route |
| B site | Cave | The end of that route nearest the site |
| CT side | Alley | The CT-side passage from spawn towards B |
Valve's notes put the cave between mid and B: the June 2022 patch closed a pixel gap from inside "cave" towards T mid and smoothed the ground outside it down towards B ramp. Hotspawn and the Counter-Strike Wiki both call the T end of that route Cheetah.
Ancient in CS2: changes that moved the names
These edits touched named spots. All come from Valve's release notes except the last row.
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| May 2021 | Joined Active Duty, replacing Train; new route from CT spawn to A, wider T entrance to the left of mid, a skylight in the T tunnel to A, an opened-up ledge on A |
| June 2022 | Crate stack outside "cave" removed and the dig inside it blocked; "donut" corners smoothed; more cover near the B pillar; one side-path exit towards A blocked |
| December 2022 | Red house cubbies flattened; CT spawn pushed back 256 units, about one second; B site blocks compressed; bomb radius raised from 500 to 650 |
| August 2025 | A night version for Casual and Deathmatch only, and the Temple angle into A Main removed, per HLTV |
Our night Ancient article covers the August 2025 update in full.
Learning the names in game
Valve's map guide for Ancient has seven lineup spots, and its titles use the names above: Top Mid, Donut, CT and Ramp. Our reload update article explains how map guides reached Competitive. The radar helps too: Side Hall means you are on the mid route through Donut to A, and Side Entrance puts you on the mid side of B, where Cheetah and Cave are.
Sources
- CS2 Ancient Callouts: all 18 official positions on the map — MapSense
- Ancient official map guide file (de_ancient.txt) — SteamDB GameTracking-CS2
- Release Notes for 5/3/2021 — Counter-Strike blog
- Release Notes for 6/15/2022 — Counter-Strike blog
- Release Notes for 12/16/2022 — Counter-Strike blog
- All CS2 Ancient Callouts Explained — Hotspawn
- Temple to A Main angle removed as Ancient gets new shaders — HLTV.org
- Ancient — Counter-Strike Wiki
