This was not anticipated.

A recent release blog has included this announcement.

https://www.reddit.com/r/counterstrike/comments/9biqm0/release_notes_for_8292018_valve_will_release_csgo/



2018.08.29

[LONDON 2018]
– Added tournament items for the FACEIT 2018 London CS:GO Major Championship and the London 2018 Pick’Em Challenge.
– Later today, CS:GO will be freely available for offline play and GOTV viewing by installing “CS:GO – Free” from the Steam Store.

[PANORAMA]
– Added better support for Panorama UI on low-end machines.
– Added support for weapon stickers and character gloves on the character featured in the main menu.
– Fixed a case where weapon finishes appeared overly dark.
– Adjusted optimal movie resolution based on user’s CPU and GPU levels.
– Fixed extra bright flashlight on characters when loading non-HDR community maps.

[MP5-SD]
– Darkened exposed metal on ejection port and bolt.
– Added support for MP5-SD to workshop workbench.

[MAPS]
Mirage
– fixed texture blends in T-spawn area.

[ MISC ]
– CS:GO has bid farewell to the Scaleform UI. “-legacyscaleformui” is no longer supported.
– Updated the Settings menu to display the Steam Controller Configurator if a Steam Controller is detected.
– Added a new recommended Steam Controller config to better support the Buy menu and Team Select menu.
– Miscellaneous stability and security improvements.



Valve has made CS:GO free to play as a separate edition of the game.

This edition is called the 'free edition'.

It offers offline mode with bots and GOTV viewing.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/730/CounterStrike_Global_Offensive/

The standard edition is the full game.




Disclaimers:

1) There won't be card drops as this is a complimentary license.

2) Multi-player won't be accessible; you must have the standard edition.