CS2 Patch Notes - 22nd May 2026

The headline here is the IEM Cologne 2026 Major Hub going live, as confirmed in the official patch notes. Grab a Cologne 2026 Viewer Pass to get an upgradable coin, compete in the Pick'Em Challenge, and see how your predictions stack up against friends on the Active Pass Leaderboard. Standard Major season stuff, but Pick'Em is always a good excuse to pay closer attention to the group stage matches.

The change that will actually matter to long-time players is the Trade Up Contract update. Souvenir quality items can now be selected alongside normal quality items in a Trade Up, though all souvenir attributes get stripped in the process, and the result is a single normal item one quality tier higher. It's a small but practical change that gives souvenir items a use beyond sitting in your inventory gathering dust. I'm surprised it took this long.

Everything else is minor cleanup: a scoreboard timeline fix in overtime, corrected weapon pickup hint text, a spectator flash adjustment, and a tweaked finger animation on the Bayonet model. Nothing that shifts the meta, but the overtime scoreboard fix is the sort of thing that quietly annoyed a lot of players.

The complete notes are below.

Full Patch Notes

\[ MAJOR ]

The IEM Cologne 2026 Major Hub is now available. Visit the hub to purchase tournament items, play the Pick'Em Challenge and more.
Purchase a Cologne 2026 Viewer Pass to receive an upgradable Cologne 2026 Coin. With an active pass, you can upgrade your coin and earn rewards by playing the Pick'Em Challenge. Additionally, you will show up on the Active Pass Leaderboard where you can compare your Pick'Em Challenge performance to your friends.

\[ UI ]

Fixed a case of incorrect scoreboard timeline presentation in overtime.
Fixed weapon entities disallowing pickup from showing pick up weapon hint text.
Increased spectator in-eye flash amount.

\[ MISC ]

Souvenir quality items can now be selected in Trade Up Contract alongside normal quality items. All Souvenir attributes will be removed from any souvenir items selected, and the result of a Trade Up Contract will be a single normal item of a quality one higher, from a collection of all of the items selected for exchange.
Fixed a case where tire fire particles were flickering in the advanced video preview.
Adjusted finger animation on Bayonet model.