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Automating the Combat Cycle

Maintaining a dynamic and diverse map rotation is essential for keeping your player base engaged and preventing gameplay stagnation. By establishing a predefined map cycle, you allow your Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) server to automatically transition to new environments once a match concludes, ensuring a continuous experience without the need for manual administrative intervention.

Difficulty

Beginner

Time

4 Minutes

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Establishing the Cycle List

The foundation of your rotation is the mapcycle.txt file, which serves as the index for the game engine.
1

Create the Configuration

In your Game Panel File Manager, navigate to the /game/csgo/ directory. Create a new file named mapcycle.txt.
2

Populate Map Names

Enter the technical names of the maps you wish to include, with one entry per line.
  • Example:
de_dust2
de_mirage
de_nuke
de_ancient
de_inferno

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Configuring Engine Behavior

To ensure the engine respects your cycle and transitions correctly after the final round, you must apply specific console variables to your server.cfg.
  • mp_match_end_changelevel 1: Instructs the engine to trigger a level change once the match conclusion sequence finishes.
  • mp_match_end_restart 0: Ensures the current map does not simply reload itself, allowing the next entry in the cycle to take precedence.

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Need Extra Help?

If you encounter any issues, our support team is ready to assist:

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Last Updated: January 2026 | CS2: Rotation initialized.