Counter-Strike 2 has two ranked ladders, and they rank you differently. Competitive uses 18 Skill Groups, earned separately on each map, running from Silver I at the bottom to The Global Elite at the top. Premier uses one CS Rating number shown in seven colors: grey below 5,000, then light blue, blue, purple, pink and red in 5,000-point steps, and gold from 30,000 up.
We took the names, the color bands and the win requirements below from the game’s own files and checked them against Valve’s release notes, so they match the current build (after Valve’s October 14, 2026 update). One thing we will not give you is a rank distribution. Valve has never published one, and the percentages that circulate online are third-party estimates.
Competitive Skill Groups in Order (Lowest to Highest)
These are the 18 Skill Groups in Competitive matchmaking, with the same names CS:GO used:
| # | Skill Group |
|---|---|
| 1 | Silver I |
| 2 | Silver II |
| 3 | Silver III |
| 4 | Silver IV |
| 5 | Silver Elite |
| 6 | Silver Elite Master |
| 7 | Gold Nova I |
| 8 | Gold Nova II |
| 9 | Gold Nova III |
| 10 | Gold Nova Master |
| 11 | Master Guardian I |
| 12 | Master Guardian II |
| 13 | Master Guardian Elite |
| 14 | Distinguished Master Guardian |
| 15 | Legendary Eagle |
| 16 | Legendary Eagle Master |
| 17 | Supreme Master First Class |
| 18 | The Global Elite |
The game describes a Skill Group simply as something “used to find matches appropriate for your skill.” Because each map has its own, you can be a Gold Nova on one map and a Master Guardian on another.
Premier CS Rating Colors in Order
Premier does not use named ranks. Your CS Rating is a number, and the game colors it by range. The color names in this table are ours (the game files number the tiers rather than naming them), but the ranges and the hex codes come straight from those files:
| Tier | Color | CS Rating | Color code in the game files |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grey | 0 to 4,999 | #b0c3d9 |
| 2 | Light blue | 5,000 to 9,999 | #8cc6ff |
| 3 | Blue | 10,000 to 14,999 | #6a7dff |
| 4 | Purple | 15,000 to 19,999 | #c166ff |
| 5 | Pink | 20,000 to 24,999 | #f03cff |
| 6 | Red | 25,000 to 29,999 | #eb4b4b |
| 7 | Gold | 30,000 and up | #ffd700 |
The game sorts every rating into a tier by dividing it by 5,000 and capping the result at the seventh tier, so there is no color above gold however high a rating goes. Valve confirmed the 5,000-point steps itself in October 2023: “Relegation and Promotion matches will only occur at color boundaries, i.e. every 5000 CS Rating points.”
The game also tells you where you stand. Your rating shows “Top X Percent” with your own percentile, or your position in the world if you are high enough to be listed on the leaderboard. That personal percentile is the only placement figure Valve shows, and it is a better yardstick than any distribution chart.
How Placement Works in Premier
- You need Prime Status. Valve’s Prime Status FAQ says Competitive Skill Groups and CS Ratings “are only issued to users with Prime Status,” and Premier itself also needs Profile Rank 10.
- Win 10 matches. Until then your profile reads “Win N more matches” instead of a number. The count is wins, not matches played.
- Your rating then moves every match. The end-of-match screen shows the points you gained or lost. When you are close to a color line, the game labels your next match a Promotion Match or Relegation Match.
- Stay active. A rating that goes unused expires (“Your CS Rating has expired due to inactivity”), and one win brings it back. Valve does not publish the time limit, but the Season Progress tooltip tells you how long your rating will remain active.
Premier runs in seasons, and Season Five began on July 8, 2026. When Season Two started in January 2025, Valve recalibrated every rating based on the previous season and asked players to “re-establish your CS Rating by winning 10 matches.” Valve’s later season notes do not spell the process out again; player reports describe the same re-placement at each new season.
A few rules affect who you can queue with. The game refuses parties whose ratings are “too far apart,” for some gaps it only lets you queue as a full team of five, and players with a very high established rating cannot party with accounts that have no rating yet. Valve does not publish the exact gap.
At the end of a season, players with 25 Premier wins, an account in good standing and an active rating get a Season Medal colored by their highest rating that season. The best players also appear on Valve’s leaderboards: the top 1,000 in the world and in each region, per Valve’s leaderboards FAQ, with your region set by the servers you play on most.
How Placement Works in Competitive and Wingman
- Competitive ranks you per map. The game files and Valve’s June 2024 notes agree: a map’s Skill Group is revealed after two wins on that map.
- Valve reset them in January 2026. With Premier Season Four (January 21, 2026), Valve “adjusted underlying per-map competitive matchmaking rank values” and expired every existing per-map Skill Group. Each one reappears once you earn the required wins again.
- Inactivity hides a rank. An expired or recalibrating Skill Group comes back after one win.
- Wingman has its own Skill Group with the same 18 names, and the game files require 10 wins to establish it.
- A non-Prime player in your party makes the match unranked. The game’s own text says such a match “will not affect players’ skill groups or leaderboards.”
- Rush has no Skill Group. Valve’s announcement of its 3v3 Rush mode, added in the Rush Hour update on September 22, 2026, mentions only a friends leaderboard that tracks your wins.
Profile Rank Is Not a Skill Rank
The XP rank on your player card is your Profile Rank. It runs from 1 to Global General (Rank 40), rises with XP from any mode, and earns a Service Medal when you reach the top and reset. It measures time played, not skill, and Premier only needs you to reach Profile Rank 10.
Tips for Climbing
- Fix what you see before you grind. Our guide to the best CS2 settings for FPS and visibility covers the two video options Valve itself warns about turning off.
- Lock in a crosshair you trust. See how to use CS2 crosshair codes to copy and save one.
- Practice lineups offline. Our CS2 console commands list has the practice-server setup.
- Pick your Competitive maps. Since each map ranks separately, a few maps you know well can carry a higher Skill Group than playing everything.
Playing other competitive shooters too? See how ranked works in Gears of War E-Day and Battlefield 6 REDSEC.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the highest rank in CS2? In Competitive, The Global Elite. In Premier there is no named top rank: gold covers every rating from 30,000 up, and the very best players are listed by position on Valve’s leaderboards.
What is the lowest rank in CS2? Silver I in Competitive. In Premier, the grey tier covers ratings below 5,000.
How many wins do you need to get a rank in CS2? Two wins on a map for a Competitive Skill Group on that map, and 10 wins for a Premier CS Rating or a Wingman Skill Group.
Do CS:GO ranks carry over to CS2? The Competitive names carry over, but the ranks themselves have been reset since launch, most recently when Valve expired every per-map Skill Group on January 21, 2026.
What are the CS2 Premier rank colors? Grey, light blue, blue, purple, pink, red and gold, in 5,000-point steps from 0 to 30,000 and up.
Where can I see the CS2 rank distribution? Valve has not published one. Your profile shows your own percentile (“Top X Percent”), which is the only official figure.