Valve is rotating the Counter-Strike 2 Premier map pool again, and the line change for Season 4 is clear: Train is out, Anubis is back. The update follows Valve’s now-familiar start-of-season shuffle that tries to keep both the pro and Premier ecosystems moving, even when it disrupts comfort picks.
According to Valve’s official communication on X, the timing is locked in: Premier Season 3 ends on January 19, 2026, and Season 4 begins immediately after. With that rollover, the active 7-map, Active Duty-style pool will include Anubis, returning after roughly six months away, while Train exits the lineup.
Valve’s official confirmation: Season 4 begins after January 19, 2026
Valve publicly confirmed the CS2 Premier Season 4 map pool change in an official post that includes the explicit swap: “Train + Anubis.” Multiple outlets covering the announcement (including Dot Esports and Esports Insider) point to the same source and phrasing, tying the map change directly to the end of Season 3.
The schedule matters because it clarifies when players should expect matchmaking to feel different. Season 3 ends on January 19, 2026, and Season 4 begins immediately after, meaning the rotation isn’t a vague “soon,” but a hard cutoff aligned with the seasonal reset.
This also frames the change as part of Valve’s seasonal cadence: you compete in a stable pool for a set period, then a refresh arrives at the boundary. HLTV’s summary positions Anubis replacing Train as another example of Valve using season transitions to rotate the Active Duty-style pool without mid-season turbulence.
Premier medal requirements: 25 wins and visible CSR
Alongside the map news, Valve reiterated requirements tied to the Season 3 Premier medal. The official announcement includes two conditions: earning “25 Season Three Premier wins” and having a “visible CSR” (your Counter-Strike Rating must be displayed rather than hidden).
That matters because it encourages participation right up to the deadline. Players who want the medal can’t simply grind early and disappear, they need to remain within the rating system’s visible state as the season wraps.
It also reinforces a broader Premier theme: Valve wants Season results to be anchored to ranked transparency. By binding rewards to both wins and visible CSR, Valve is nudging players toward the core ranked experience rather than treating Premier as a casual checklist.
The new 7-map Season 4 pool: Anubis returns, Train departs
Coverage compiling the official announcement lists a full seven-map pool for Season 4 in an Active Duty-style format: Dust2, Mirage, Inferno, Nuke, Ancient, Overpass, and Anubis. In practical terms, the swap is a single-slot rotation, Train out, Anubis in, while the rest remains stable.
That stability is important: even one-map changes can reshape veto logic, comfort rotations, and what “default” practice looks like for teams and solo-queue grinders. Keeping six maps constant reduces the chaos while still giving the season a new identity.
HLTV and other reports emphasize the timing: the change lands after Premier Season 3 ends on January 19, 2026. If you want to play Train in Premier before it leaves, the window is defined; if you want to prepare for Anubis, you can start building reps now a of the Season 4 rollover.
Why Anubis is coming back after about six months out
Anubis’ return is notable because it was removed in mid-July 2025, when Overpass returned for Premier Season 3. That swap sidelined Anubis for roughly half a year, a span repeatedly referenced in January 2026 coverage as “just six months.”
Dot Esports specifically frames it as Anubis returning “just six months” after being removed, with Train exiting when Season 3 concludes on Jan. 19. Esports Insider echoes the same narrative arc: a short absence, then a seasonal reintroduction.
From a meta perspective, short absences can be enough to reset how a map is perceived. A map that felt solved can come back feeling sharper, new defaults emerge, utility evolves, and players return with refreshed priorities rather than pure muscle memory.
Why Train leaving is still a big deal
Train’s exit is notable not because it’s surprising, Valve has rotated maps frequently, but because of how long it held the slot. HLTV contextualizes Train as lasting about a year in the pool, having been added at the beginning of 2025 (replacing Vertigo at that time).
A year is long enough for teams to build deep playbooks and for ranked habits to harden. Even in Premier, where coordination varies, players learn what angles are “standard,” what lurks are common, and which sites feel more retake-friendly under typical utility.
So when Train is removed, it’s more than a cosmetic change: it deletes a set of learned patterns from the active competitive rotation. For some players it’s a relief; for others it’s the loss of a map where they finally felt fluent.
Play-rate signals: what the stats suggest about Train vs Anubis
Some outlets have tried to quantify how much each map mattered in practice. EGamersWorld, for example, cites comparative play-count statistics claiming Train was played 1,942 times versus Anubis at 1,552 times “over the course of a year.” While these figures depend on the dataset and methodology, they illustrate that both maps maintained meaningful presence rather than being niche afterthoughts.
Earlier pro-play snapshots also painted Train as less prominent than the top-tier staples. Dust2.us, in an April 1, 2025 snapshot, listed Train among the least-played Active Duty maps early that year (354 maps), while Ancient led at 1,145 maps, an indicator that teams were still gravitating toward other battlegrounds even when Train was available.
Put together, the numbers support two interpretations at once: Train had real usage, but it wasn’t necessarily dominating the professional ecosystem. That nuance makes the rotation easier to understand, Valve can remove a map without collapsing competitive variety, while still reintroducing Anubis to refresh strategic diversity.
What this means for Premier players: practice priorities and adaptation
For everyday Premier players, the immediate implication is straightforward: if you want Season 3 Train reps, you have until January 19, 2026. After that, your practice time is better spent converting Train habits into transferable fundamentals, spacing, trading, utility discipline, rather than map-specific routines.
For Season 4, Anubis becomes the adaptation target. Players who invest early in core Anubis concepts, mid control, rotations through connector routes, and coordinated utility to break defensive setups, will likely climb faster during the post-reset volatility.
The “one map in, one map out” approach also means your overall pool mastery remains the main differentiator. Because Dust2, Mirage, Inferno, Nuke, Ancient, and Overpass stay, small improvements across those staples can matter more than trying to brute-force excellence on Anubis alone.
Valve’s decision to swap Train for Anubis in CS2 Premier Season 4 is a clean seasonal pivot: a confirmed date (January 19, 2026), a clearly stated rotation (“Train + Anubis”), and an Active Duty-style seven-map pool that keeps most of the ecosystem stable while still changing the strategic conversation.
For players, the takeaway is to treat the Season 3 finish line as both a reward checkpoint, 25 Premier wins with visible CSR for the medal, and a preparation window. When Season 4 begins immediately after January 19, Anubis will be the new variable, and the players who adjust fastest will define the early-season meta.