CS2 Ranks Explained: Premier CS Rating Colours and All 18 Skill Groups

CS2 has two ranking systems, and they work differently. Premier gives you one number, your CS Rating, with a colour that changes every 5,000 points. Competitive gives you one of 18 classic skill groups, from Silver I to Global Elite, separately for every map. Here's how both work, from Valve's own release notes and support pages.

Premier: your CS Rating

Premier is CS2's main ranked mode: the Active Duty maps with a pick-and-ban phase before each match. Valve calls the CS Rating "a visible measurement of your Counter-Strike performance". It's one number for all maps, and it decides where you stand on the leaderboards.

The number is shown in a colour that changes every 5,000 points:

CS Rating	Colour
0 to 4,999	Grey
5,000 to 9,999	Light blue
10,000 to 14,999	Blue
15,000 to 19,999	Purple
20,000 to 24,999	Pink
25,000 to 29,999	Red
30,000 and up	Gold

Promotion and relegation. Since October 2023, promotion and relegation matches only happen at those colour boundaries, every 5,000 points. So you play a promotion match to move up a colour, and a relegation match before you drop one.

Seasons. Premier runs in seasons. Season Four started on 21 January 2026.

Leaderboards. There are nine: Friends, World (the top 1,000 players) and seven regions: Africa, Asia, Australia, China, Europe, North America and South America. You need Prime status, and you show up on a public leaderboard once you're in the top 1,000 of your region. You can't pick your region: it's set by the servers you play on most.

Competitive: the 18 skill groups

Competitive mode keeps the skill groups CS:GO players know, but each map has its own. You can be Gold Nova on Nuke and Master Guardian on Mirage. A map shows its skill group once you've won enough matches on it.

#	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	Global Elite

In January 2026 Valve adjusted the hidden rank values behind these skill groups and expired everyone's existing per-map skill groups. They come back once you win enough matches on that map again. Wingman has its own skill groups with the same 18 names.

Premier or Competitive?

• Premier if you want one number that follows you across maps, a spot on the leaderboards and a colour to show off. Matches start with a pick-and-ban.
• Competitive if you want to play one map you choose, or learn a new one without risking your rating.

Both play up to 24 rounds in regulation time, with overtime on a tie.

Is there an official CS Rating to skill group chart?

No. Valve doesn't publish one, and the two systems measure different things: one rating across all maps against one skill group per map. Charts you see online that say "15,000 equals Legendary Eagle" are players' estimates, not Valve's numbers.

Get the setup right first

Rank is mostly practice, but settings help. Copy a pro's crosshair from our CS2 crosshair codes page, and find the commands for practice servers on our console commands list.