Set up a CS2 Rush serverThe 3v3 mode on your own server - no mods needed

Published on November 1, 2026

What CS2 Rush is

Rush arrived on 22 September 2026 with the Rush Hour update and differs clearly from the Counter-Strike you know:

• Three against three instead of five against five.
• No bomb. Each round revolves around a single Tower.
• Tug of war across seven rooms. Each round win pushes the fight one room closer to the enemy castle.
• Very short rounds. A Tower is fought over for up to 40 seconds, a Castle for up to a minute.
• Four wins in a row end the match.

Important for tactics: wiping out the team is not enough. What counts is who owns the Tower, or who takes it before a short countdown runs out. That rewards aggression and punishes passivity. For three friends who cannot get ten people together, this is a very direct form of Counter-Strike.

Activate Rush on the server

Rush is registered as a game mode of its own in the CS2 files and works through the same mechanism as Wingman or Deathmatch. The map is already part of the server files, so you do not have to upload anything. Enter these values in the startup settings in the web interface:

Then restart the server. If you want to change the mode via the console while it is running, set the same values and reload the map:

game_type 0
game_mode 6
map rush_001

At startup, the server automatically runs the gamemode_rush.cfg configuration and loads the matching rules.

The Complex map

The mode currently runs on a single official map: Complex, called rush_001 in the game files. The many arenas people talk about are rooms within this map. For each match, the game puts together a series of seven rooms from them, which is why every game feels different.

You cannot use a normal map such as de_dust2 for Rush. Valve keeps the rules in a script that belongs to the rooms of the map. So a Workshop map also needs rooms and markers built specifically for it.

What the Rush configuration sets

The supplied gamemode_rush.cfg sets the framework. Some values are of interest for your setup:

If there are only four of you, bots play along. That is handy as long as you do not have six people. If you do not want bots, set bot_quota 0 in a config of your own and load it with exec.

Hold back on the other values. The mode is tuned to its defaults, and the script controls round time and win conditions itself. Changes to them often have no effect or confuse the game.

Play privately or run it publicly

The simplest option is a private server for your group:

1. Set a server password in the settings.
2. Give your players the fixed server address made of IP and port.
3. In the game, open the console and join with connect IP:Port and the password.

If the server is to appear publicly in the list, you need a Game Server Login Token (GSLT). With six players, Rush is one of the least demanding CS2 modes. The memory requirement stays manageable and you do not need a large plan for it, see How much does a CS2 server cost?.

Differences from official Rush

On your own server, Rush is the same game, but what surrounds it is missing:

• No matchmaking. Your server is not connected to the queue. Players connect to it directly.
• No promise for the leaderboard. Instead of ranks, Rush has a leaderboard among friends. Do not count on matches on your own server counting there.
• Valve changes arrive with updates. The mode is still young, and rules and values can change with the next patch.

In return, you gain what the queue does not offer: fixed teams, a password and as many rematches as you like. Once your Rush evening is over, you switch back to competitive on the same server.

Frequently asked questions