How have M4 preferences changed following the silencer nerf?

It has been nearly a month since Valve released the CS:GO update that nerfed the M4A1-S, reducing its damage at range. In that time many pros, experts, as well as the community shared their thoughts on how it would affect the balance of the game and preferences when it comes to Counter-Terrorist rifles.

Just a few weeks ago, some believed the silencer would remain prevalent, some were still waiting to test out the two options more, while others like Hampus “⁠hampus⁠” Poser went as far as to call the M4A1-S unplayable and claim that the M4A4 was clearly the better choice. Now the BLAST Premier World Final has rolled around, the first top tournament to feature the changes, and we have finally gotten some tangible evidence showing the new trends.

The result? There has been a clear shift already.

The M4A4 has taken over as the preferred choice for the first time since the silenced version received substantial buffs to body damage in September 2021 and became the go-to weapon on the CT side. In the eight matches played during the group stage of the Abu Dhabi event, the A4 was responsible for almost 14% of all kills, while the A1-S has taken a back seat with just below 10%.

This is a result of the majority of players competing at the World Final making the switch to the M4A4. Only 13 of the 41 players in attendance have stayed completely faithful to the M4A1-S, while 22 consistently had the M4A4 in their loadout across all maps they have played so far. Players like Jonathan “⁠EliGE⁠” Jablonowski, Russel “⁠Twistzz⁠” Van Dulken, Robin “⁠ropz⁠” Kool, Nikola “⁠NiKo⁠” Kovač, and Justin “⁠jks⁠” Savage have been using the A4 religiously — outside of situations in which a teammate dropped them the silencer — along with the majority of Heroic and Vitality.

The only team not to use the M4A4 at all were Outsiders, the team who had the most time to experiment with the new update along with Vitality, as unlike the rest of the field they didn’t play at the Fall Final. Likely due to the $200 lower price point and the economic advantages that come with that, AWPers have also typically stuck with the M4A1-S with the exception of Mathieu “⁠ZywOo⁠” Herbaut and Oleksandr “⁠s1mple⁠” Kostyliev.

Six players — Håvard “⁠rain⁠” Nygaard, Nemanja “⁠huNter-⁠” Kovač, Emil “⁠Magisk⁠” Reif, s1mple, Denis “⁠electroNic⁠” Sharipov, and Ilya “⁠Perfecto⁠” Zalutskiy — dabble in both options. These are the most intriguing cases, as this could mean they think the choice is situational, dependent on what map and position they play. Another explanation could be that they are still undecided or forgot to switch their loadout, as Magisk and electroNic alternated between the two in separate matches on the same map.

rain, for example, used the A1-S on Inferno and Nuke, but he had the A4 in his loadout on Mirage, Anubis, and Ancient. The Norwegian explained his unusual preferences in an interview with HLTV: “I feel like on Nuke it’s really nice to have the silencer because you can spam the cross smokes and do a lot of damage. I don’t want them to notice where I am all of the time, so that’s why I have it there. Same with Inferno, I can spam banana smokes without them seeing my tracers,” he said. “On Ancient, it’s all close range for me on B site, if you’re spamming they know, so it doesn’t really matter.”

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Perhaps the most curious case is huNter-. The Bosnian star rifler played with the A1-S on Nuke and the A4 on Mirage and Ancient, but never bought either on Inferno — instead he went with the AUG. Finn “⁠karrigan⁠” Andersen was the only other player who often used the scoped rifle on the CT side during the BLAST group stage, in his case on Mirage and Ancient. The AUG hasn’t been a very popular weapon in recent times, dropping off in usage in mid-2020 following a series of nerfs.

The sample at the top level is still rather small, only eight teams and 21 maps in total and no top-tier data on Vertigo and Overpass, so tendencies are still likely to shift further as teams get more playtime with the changes and play more different maps. However, the early signs suggest the long reign of the M4A1-S is over.