The shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Steam) has nerfed the sniper rifle AWP: The magazine now holds only 5 shots instead of 10 after a recent update. This is the biggest nerf of the iconic weapon since the release of the E-sport shooter CS:GO on Steam in 2012.
What kind of weapon is this? The AWP is the “Arctic Warfare Police,” a sniper rifle from the British manufacturer Accuracy International LTD, used by the police. It has a 24-inch barrel and uses 7.62×51 mm NATO ammunition.
How does the AWP work in the game? The AWP is a “High Risk, High Reward” weapon in CS:GO: With a cost of $4,750, it is one of the most expensive weapons in CS:GO, but it is also one of the most effective.
Many e-sport teams deliberately play with one or more “AWP players,” specialized in using the sniper rifle: The world’s most famous CS:GO player, s1mple, is one such AWP player.
An experienced sniper can inflict devastating damage on the opposing team, securing two, three, or four kills in rapid succession.
This has led over the years to the “AWP” becoming one of the most critical weapons in PC gaming.
The Wikipedia page for Counter-Strike describes the weapon as a “devastatingly powerful long-range weapon with extreme accuracy and obscene stopping power.” However, the high price and the cumbersome play style required an enormous amount of training, accuracy, and experience to master the weapon (via cs-wiki).
The AWP also exists in other games like Valorant, albeit in different variants.
AWP now only has 5 shots instead of 10 after patch – “So that every shot counts”
This is now the nerf: In the new patch from November 18th, the magazine size of the AWP was reduced from 10 to 5. The magazine has been halved.
According to Steam operator Valve: They want every shot to count.
“I was there when they nerfed the AWP”
What do the players say? They recognize the historical significance of the nerf.
On Reddit, a user screams: “I was there when they halved the magazine size of the AWP.”
Another says that this is “one of the moments” in the history of CS:GO.
Others joke that the weapon has only been nerfed now because the famous French AWP player “kennyS” has returned to the game after an 18-month break.
Has this happened before? The last significant change to the AWP was in 2015 when Valve restricted how quickly players could move while simultaneously looking through the AWP’s scope.
