Game Modes
A game mode is the difference between a competitive match and a fun one. It bundles the things that have to change together:
- the plugins the server loads, and the order it loads them in,
- a block of console variables, exec'd after the match type's config,
- optional launch parameters,
- and, for community servers, the Valve Game Mode the server starts on.
Modes are created under Settings → Application → Game Modes. They need Game Plugins turned on first — a mode has nothing to load without them.
What ships with it
Four starter modes are created once, so a fresh install has something to pick besides Competitive:
| Mode | Wraps | Valve Game Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Deathmatch | ianlucas/cs2-ss2-deathmatch | Deathmatch |
| Retakes | a2Labs-cc/SwiftlyS2-Retakes | Custom |
| 1v1 Arenas | shmitzas/K4-Arenas-Upkeep | Custom |
| Chaos | LCrew/S2-CSRoll | Competitive |
Each wires itself to its catalog plugin as soon as the registry has synced. On a very first boot they exist with no plugins and pick them up on a later pass. A mode that already selects plugins is left alone.
All four need SwiftlyS2
Every starter plugin is built for SwiftlyS2, the default runtime. On a CounterStrikeSharp deployment none of them installs, and selecting one of these modes is refused by name rather than silently starting a server with nothing loaded. See Runtime compatibility.
They are yours from then on: edit them freely, and a mode you delete stays deleted.
Upgrading from an earlier version
Earlier versions seeded Deathmatch and Retakes with CounterStrikeSharp plugins. Those modes are kept, and the catalog entries they select (deathmatch and retakes) now point at the SwiftlyS2 plugins above.
Arenas keeps its ladder in a database (SQLite by default). Chaos is not Verified in the catalog, and it ships a Workshop addon that players download when they join; see Workshop addons.
The official mode
Utility Practice is marked Official 5Stack: utility practice servers run on it, so it cannot be deleted, disabled or renamed. Its cvars are yours to edit.
Creating one
Give it a name and a slug, pick the plugins it needs, and write the cvars. The plugins list only offers what is in your catalog, so install what you need first.
Plugins load in the order shown. Anything hand-placed in /opt/5stack/custom-plugins still wins a collision, so a file you dropped there yourself is never replaced by a managed one.
Console variables
The cvar block is exec'd last, after the match type's config, the global config and any plugin's own cvars, so anything you set here beats all of them:
mp_freezetime 3
mp_respawn_immunitytime 2The full order a server applies, each layer beating the one above it:
| Order | Layer |
|---|---|
| 1 | The match type — Competitive, Wingman, Duel, Rush |
| 2 | LAN tuning, on a LAN region |
| 3 | Global |
| 4 | Each loading game plugin's own cvars |
| 5 | The game mode's block, above |
That order is for matches. A community server has no match, so it gets a shorter one; see On a community server.
On workshop maps CS2 drops a handful of "workshop-disallowed" cvars from an exec'd config. 5Stack starts CS2 servers with -disable_workshop_command_filtering so they are kept, and the match plugin also re-sends them directly, with a value set in a mode winning over the same value in the type config — the same order they would have applied in.
Valve Game Mode
Valve Game Mode is the CS2 game mode a community server running this mode starts on: Custom (the default), Casual, Competitive, Wingman, Retakes, Rush, Arms Race or Deathmatch.
It matters for plugins built on one of Valve's modes. The Deathmatch plugin changes CS2's own deathmatch rules, which stock Custom never runs, so on Custom everyone spawns at their team's spawn. Matches ignore it: they keep their own match type.
On a community server
A community server running a mode has no match to exec the layers above, so they are written into the Valve Game Mode's server config instead, which CS2 execs on every map load. That is also what keeps them across a map rotation. In order, last wins:
- each loading plugin's own cvars,
- the game mode's block,
- the server's own plugin cvars, set per server.
The Global config and the match type configs are not applied there. Changing a mode's cvars reaches a running community server the next time it restarts.
Global configuration
A cvar that should apply to every match, whatever its type, belongs in the Global tab under Settings → Application → Game Type Configs, beside Competitive, Wingman, Duel, Rush and LAN.
It is a layer rather than a type: it is exec'd on top of whichever type config the match already got, so it is the one place to put something cross-cutting instead of pasting it into three configs and keeping them in step.
Global is deliberately unscoped — it is the "every match" layer, and a global with exceptions is just a type config with extra steps. To narrow something to particular matches, put it on a game plugin or in a game mode instead.
Nothing ships in it
Global starts empty and has no shipped default — Revert to Defaults on that tab clears it rather than restoring anything.
Where a mode is used
| Surface | How |
|---|---|
| A custom match | Game Mode on the match options form |
| A draft lobby | the same field, when creating a draft room. Only modes with Offer in draft lobbies on are listed |
| A community server | Custom Presets on the dedicated server form. The mode's name shows on the server's card on the Public Servers page |
Setting a mode on a long-lived server changes it for everyone on that server, so the server is recreated to pick the plugins up. On-demand match servers get a fresh pod per match anyway, so there is nothing to restart.
Enabled controls whether a mode can be picked at all. A disabled mode is kept, but cannot be picked for a match, server or draft room.
Custom modes are unranked
A match with any custom mode never counts toward ELO or the stats leaderboards. It plays under third-party plugins, so it is unranked unconditionally, whatever the mode's settings say.
An unranked match is a completely real match. It plays on a real server, and stats, demos and round data are all recorded and shown exactly as they always are. The only difference is that it does not move anybody's ELO, and it is left out of the stats leaderboards.
The Offer in draft lobbies switch, off by default, only decides whether lobby hosts can pick the mode when creating a draft room. It does not make a mode ranked.
Written onto the match
Whether a match counts is written onto the match itself, and follows its mode only until the match goes Live, when the mode is locked. A match with no mode at all counts, as it always did.
Ranked servers
The guarantee that actually protects matchmaking is stronger, and lives in the database rather than in a switch:
A Ranked server never inherits a mode
Servers of type Ranked — the pool matchmaking draws from — cannot carry a persistent game mode at all. The database refuses to store one, and refuses to move a server that has one into the Ranked pool.
A fun match has to ask for its mode on the match itself. That means a server handed back to matchmaking always comes up on a clean plugin set, without anyone having to remember to switch anything off.
Matchmaking never sets a mode on the matches it creates, so a queued match is competitive by construction.
The one exception is a plugin whose Ranked Matches switch is on, which every ranked server loads regardless of mode.
Runtime compatibility
A mode does not declare which framework it runs on — that is decided by the plugins it selects. A mode is runnable on a runtime only if every plugin in it publishes a build for that runtime.
Selecting a mode whose plugins have no build for the runtime your deployment runs is refused, naming the plugin that is missing, rather than booting a server with none of its plugins and nothing to say why. This applies wherever a mode is picked: a match, a draft lobby, or a server.
Two plugins that exist for different frameworks resolve to a mode that runs nowhere, and the panel says so before you get as far as starting anything.
Changing and retiring a mode
A mode cannot be changed once its match is Live or in Veto, alongside the other settings that are locked at that point.
Retiring a mode archives it rather than deleting it: it disappears from every picker, but matches that were played under it keep saying so. A mode no match has ever used can be deleted outright.