Counter Strike has been around since 1999 and if you’ve played this game for a long time, you’re probably familiar with the map prefixes cs for cs_assault and de for de_dust. But do you know what they actually mean? So if you’ve ever wondered what those prefixes stand for, read on!
The map prefix is an indicator of what kind of scenario mode the map is. It is a traditional naming convention for Valve’s source game and can be helpful for quickly finding a specific type of map without having to read through the whole description.
DE – Diffusion
Maps with the “de_” prefix are Bomb Defusal maps. The objective is the Terrorist team must plant a bomb to a specific objective site and the counter-terrorist must prevent it from being detonated.
Here are the specific winning conditions for both sides:
- Counter-Terrorist
- Must stop the opposing team detonating the bomb.
- Eliminate the opposing team.
- Terrorist
- Detonate the bomb before the timer runs out.
- Eliminate the opposing team before the round timer runs out.
CS – Hostage Rescue
For the prefix “cs_” it is a hostage rescue mode where the counter-terrorist team need to rescue the hostages, while the terrorist needs to stop them.
Here are the specific winning conditions for both sides:
- Counter-Terrorist
- Must rescue at least half of the hostages and there should no remaining un-rescued hostages.
- Eliminate the opposing team before the round timer runs out.
- Terrorist
- The opposing team must not rescue half of the hostages before the timer runs out.
- Eliminate the opposing team.
AS – Assassination
The prefix “as_” means assassination mode, where the terrorist team needs to eliminate the VIP before they can escape while the opposing team needs to protect and escort the VIP to extraction area.
Here are the specific winning conditions for both sides:
- Counter-Terrorist
- Must protect VIP at all cost and escort them to the extraction area.
- Eliminate the opposing team.
- Terrorist
- Eliminate all of the VIP before they can escape.
- Eliminate the opposing team before the time runs out.
There are also other unofficial prefixes that are created by the community, though the list above are the official ones coming from Valve. So that’s a quick explanation of what those map prefixes in Counter Strike actually stand for. Did you already know all of them or were you surprised by some of them? Let us know in the comments below!