On April 28, 2026, Valve released "The Return Of Cache", which made the classic map an official CS2 map, seven years after it left the Active Duty pool in CS:GO. Cache arrived in Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch and Retakes. It capped a busy April: a week earlier Valve had switched the whole game to its new animation system, Animgraph 2, and limited trade offers to 1,000 items.
What changed in April 2026
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| April 1 | Animgraph 2 opens as an opt-in beta build |
| April 20 | All Animgraph 2 changes go live for everyone |
| April 21 | Recoil camera motion brought closer to CS:GO |
| April 22 | Trade offers containing CS2 items limited to 1,000 items |
| April 28 | Cache added to Competitive, Casual, Deathmatch and Retakes |
Cache is back
Valve's announcement called Cache "a classic three lane map that rewards strategy and teamplay", and told veterans they would "feel right at home in familiar locations". It ended with a nod to one of the map's best-known spots: "Don't forget to clear Forklift."
The map has a long history. Salvatore "Volcano" Garozzo originally created Cache for Counter-Strike: Source. In CS:GO it joined the Active Duty pool in 2014 and stayed there until 2019, when Vertigo replaced it.
Its CS2 version came from Shawn "FMPONE" Snelling, whom HLTV also credits as the map's creator, and Valve bought it. HLTV reported that FMPONE had confirmed Valve "reached out to buy it on day one of release", and Dust2.us wrote at launch that Valve's version looks quite different from the map as it was acquired from FMPONE.
Note the modes. Valve listed Casual, Competitive, Deathmatch and Retakes, adding "(for now)". Premier uses the Active Duty pool, so Cache wasn't in Premier at first. That came on July 8, 2026, when Cache replaced Overpass for Premier Season Five.
The first fixes
Valve patched Cache on each of the next two days. On April 29 it:
- increased the bomb explosion radius
- adjusted the lighting around Vent
- reworked the e-box on A site for better visibility
- lowered the height of the Checkers entrance frame at B Main
- removed the AC unit above Sandbags and moved the pipes
- removed a lamp by Squeaky and disabled player collision on a sign
- fixed wall bangs on the A Main wall and a hole in the world on a door in Sun Room
- adjusted grenade and player clipping across the map
On April 30 it followed with map-wide clipping and geometry fixes, including spots where a dropped bomb couldn't be reached. Cache fixes carried on through May, covered with the NIGHTMODE II update.
Animgraph 2 goes live
Animgraph 2 is the new version of CS2's animation system. When Valve opened the beta on April 1, it said the system "reduces the CPU and networking costs associated with animation", and that all third-person animations had been re-authored, in many cases in response to player feedback. Players had to opt into the beta build and couldn't connect to Valve servers while using it.
Three changes from the beta notes matter in play:
- Smoother crouching in the air, in first and third person.
- Consistent player height on ramps. Height no longer depends on the direction you approach a slope from.
- Grenade line-ups on slopes. Valve warned that, as a result, line-ups thrown from sloped surfaces "may have changed".
After nearly three weeks of beta patches, Valve's April 20 notes said: "All changes from the animgraph_2_beta build are now live." Fixes kept coming. The April 28 update, for example, made sure the Talon and Karambit knives are held correctly while defusing.
The day after the switch, Valve also changed how recoil looks. Camera motion from recoil was adjusted "to match CS:GO more closely", while bullet trajectories stay as they were in CS2. Camera motion from being shot now shows in full regardless of network latency, and on April 30 aim punch was limited to 90 degrees.
Trade offers capped at 1,000 items
The April 22 notes contained a single line for traders: "Trade offers containing Counter-Strike 2 items are now limited to 1,000 items." Valve gave no reason. For most players nothing changes, but anyone moving more than 1,000 CS2 items between accounts now has to split them across several offers. The notes didn't touch trade protection, which our trade protection explainer covers.
Other changes on April 28
- Dust II. Mid Box (Xbox) was uncovered to reveal a previously hidden jump spot, "On purpose this time", in Valve's words. The next day Valve blocked visibility through a corner of the box.
- Office. The tarp on the boxes around CT spawn now has collision.
- Community maps. Stronghold and Poseidon were updated to their latest Workshop versions.
- Sound. The C4 equip sound now gets cut off by other equip sounds, and a first-person death sound that played when a music kit's death cue was inaudible was removed.
- Mirage. A shader fix removed overly dark, chunky silhouettes on railings.
Where it stands now
Cache has been in the Active Duty pool since Premier Season Five began on July 8, 2026, and Valve has kept adjusting it. A September 9 patch fixed gaps and a wall bang spot on B site, and added a missing competitive CT spawn point and more T spawn points.
The previous update covered here is the March 2026 reload redesign. The next one brought the NIGHTMODE II music kits in May.
Sources
- The Return Of Cache — Counter-Strike 2 news
- Counter-Strike 2 Update, April 20, 2026 — Counter-Strike 2 news
- Animgraph 2 Beta — Counter-Strike 2 news
- Valve releases Cache update — HLTV.org
- Valve tease Cache addition: "What are you doing next week?" — HLTV.org
- Breaking: Valve release new version of Cache in Counter-Strike 2 — Dust2.us
- Cache — Counter-Strike Wiki
- AnimGraph2 goes live in latest CS2 update — HLTV.org
