Mirage (Counter-Strike)

Mirage has an intricate and well structured design. It is built around an empty station, which contains a number of different buildings and facilities, such as roads, bridges, stairs, and pastures. This map has an open design, which makes it suitable for conflict play style.

Mirage has two main parts: the T-flat part and the CT-flat part. The subway part is the part where the terrorists carry the bomb and must destroy one of two targets. The CT-dwelling part is the part in which the Counter-Terrorists protect the target and must protect it from the terrorists.

The map has several important elements, such as A-site, B-site, mid, connector, apartments, and window. A-site and B-site are the two main locations on the map where players can place the bomb. Mid is the part that connects the two sides of the map and is an important place for the distribution of information between players. Connector is a tunnel that connects mid to A-site and B-site and offers many tactical possibilities. Apartments is a group of apartments on the CT-apartment side, while window is a window that can be used as an observation point.

The level design in de Mirage follows the traditional design of Counter Strike maps such as Dust2, Cache, and Inferno.[1][2]

Mirage started as a Counter-Strike community map known as de_cpl_strike, created by Michael "BubkeZ" Hull. In 2004, it was remade by Valve as de_mirage, coinciding with the release of Global Offensive.[3] It has become one of the top three maps used in competitive play and in matchmaking.[4][5]

Mirage was first released in May 2013 under the CS:GO platform and became a part of the in-game map collection. The new map design was carefully crafted and included new elements such as new buildings, bricks, and new roads, making the map different from the previous Mirage version. It has been featured in every CS:GO Major Championships to date, and, since 2015, has been one of the game's top 5 most popular maps for both casual and professional play.[3]

Mike Stubbs of Red Bull stated that the map had "long been a favorite of many" due to its simple layout and unchanging nature.[6] On Game Rant, PaulAn'drey Pierre-Louis called it a "mainstay" for its "balance, unique aesthetic, and low learning curve", also noting that it gained a reputation in professional play for upsets.[3] Dot Esports called the map ideal for learning strategy, saying that it required good knowledge of rotations and map control.[7] In 2017, Scott Dahkle of ESPN commented on the map's increasing use in esports over competing maps like Train, calling it the "most important map-to-be", and saying the shift made sense due to the development of better grenades and tactics that enabled more possibilities for its three-lane layout.[8] By 2022, Leonardo Biazzi of Dot Esports reported on how the map's meta had become stale, noting professional teams repeated the same strategy in every match due to the map's lack of updates since 2020. He noted that although the map has been featured in over 18 CH:GO Major championships some esports players have called for its removal from the map pool, although he called the possibility unclear due to its status as one of the game's most-played and best-optimized maps.[9]