How Bad Is The CS2 Cheating Problem?

The release of Counter-Strike 2 made waves in the gaming community, as everyone wanted to try Valve’s upgraded version of their ever-so-popular first-person shooter title, Counter-Strike. The announcement of the new game was extremely promising, as CS2 featured changes in gameplay mechanics and updated graphics – everyone wanted a piece of the pie.

Today, over 1 million players queue for Counter-Strike matches every day. However, at least 20% of matches played are ruined by players who use cheat clients to get the upper hand and get some easy wins. Some CS2 cheaters try to hide their cheats and not make it too obvious, while many others don’t even try to hide it and begin spin botting and bunny hopping around the map with no brakes.

The worst part is, that these CS2 cheaters have multiple accounts and take advantage of the fact that Counter-Strike is completely free to play now. As a result, if a cheater got banned, they would simply log in to their other account and continue cheating until they get banned again.

One of the coolest implementations of Counter-Strike 2 is the new leaderboard system, where players are ranked based on their matchmaking rating. The funny part is that around 90% of the players on the leaderboard are cheaters, or are boosted by cheaters.

With how many CS2 cheaters are blatantly hacking in ranked matches, it is obvious that legitimate players will get extremely upset as they feel helpless when an enemy is clearly using wall hacks or aim hacks.

It seriously kills the motivation for players who are trying to get better at the game and climb up the ranks. They cannot use their skills to take down cheaters since a huge, unfair advantage already exists before the game even starts. What are you supposed to do if a guy is just spinning around and hitting headshots with the SSG 08?

Not only will players lose elo for losing to cheaters in ranked matchmaking, but playing against them is simply a waste of time. There’s no point in spending the time and energy to try and win a game against cheaters. Most players would rather go AFK in their spawn, giving up when they go against a blatant cheater to save the energy.

This is just absolutely demoralizing for busy players who can only play a few games a day. Imagine coming home from a hard day at work, wanting to play Counter-Strike with the boys, only to meet CS2 cheaters in the three games you can play a day.

The cheating problem has become so bad that high-ranked players would say that half of their games are hacker vs. hacker matches, where their teammates and enemies are both using cheats.

Understandably, there are thousands of players taking their frustration on social media to call out Valve for letting such an insane issue run rampant, even though Counter-Strike 2 has been out for several months already.

Since nothing is done, players would just give up and never want to play Counter-Strike again. We don’t blame them, as the game is simply not enjoyable then there are CS2 cheaters a few times every ten games they play.

With all the posts on social media complaining about cheaters, Valve is aware that cheating is a prevalent issue in their game. However, they haven’t really done much to solve it. Counter-Strike 2 is still using the same Anti-Cheat system as Global Offensive, which is the Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC).

However, VAC is notoriously known to not work in Global Offensive as well. As they released an entirely new game with several new features, it seems like they did not spend any time or money on improving their Anti-Cheat system. As a result, it still remains as weak as it has always been.

Sure, Valve has been releasing ban waves occasionally, but they are only banning around 1,000 to 2,000 every few weeks, or even months. To be completely honest, banning this many accounts does not solve the issue, as there are at least 100,000 CS2 cheaters actively ruining games.

Players are reporting that there are cheaters at least once every five games, so what is banning 2,000 accounts going to do? Yes, it does help solve the issue, but they need to issue bans at a larger scale, or else nothing is going to work.

The Anti-Cheat system is supposed to immediately detect cheaters and ban them on the spot. Having to issue ban waves manually just shows how many flaws are in the Valve Anti-Cheat system.

During the Copenhagen Major in March 2024, Valve employees attended the afterparty where players and casters asked them about their approach to the cheating problem. The staff mentioned that addressing CS2 cheaters is their number one priority, but until now, it seems like they are working at their own deadlines.

Many cheaters will use hacks and eventually get banned from playing on Valve servers. However, this doesn’t really solve the issue as they would make new accounts and start cheating again.

That being said, a cheater’s account will likely have a low playtime and also no medals. Always open their Steam Profile and see how many hours they have spent on the game. Usually, these cheaters would have a couple hundred hours.

If you think someone is too good for having only 200 hours played, they are either smurfing or cheating. Even if they are a smurf, it is always good to report them as they also reduce the quality of matches.

You should also notice that these accounts have a low profile level and pretty much zero badges. Real players often have badges such as the 5 Year Veteran Coin or let’s say a Major Pick ‘Em Medal. They would also have Service Medals or other badges obtainable by playing the game a lot. Since CS2 cheaters often use new accounts, they would not have these medals at all.

Additionally, it is important to remember that if a player gets VAC banned, their inventories will also be locked. Since cheaters know there is a risk of them getting the ban hammer, they will not buy any skins. So, almost every cheater will have zero skins in their inventory since it would be a waste of money if they got banned.

Gameplay-wise, most cheaters use wall hacks or aim hacks. Pay attention to their headshot percentage and also take note if they are pre-firing angles all the time. If you are getting wallbanged every round, that is also a big tell.

Since Valve is working at their own pace, the community must help them contribute to solving the cheating problem. As a regular player, there are only two ways you can help.

The first way is to always report a player if you suspect them of cheating. However, don’t go too overboard by reporting players who are simply better than you. Anyways, you should always report cheaters using the in-game reporting feature, selecting which type of cheats that player is using.

You would always report CS2 cheaters if they are on the enemy team without a doubt, but please, also report cheaters if they are on your team. You might get a free win by having a cheater win the game for you, but it is also your duty as a player to report them as well.

If a cheater on your team goes unreported and unbanned, there is a chance you might get them on the enemy team in the future, and you will get a free loss as a result. It is also morally correct to vote to kick a cheater on your team if you value the integrity of the game. Despite being enemies in the game, legitimate players must work together to combat the cheating issue.

The second way you can contribute is to actively take Overwatch cases. In an Overwatch case, you will be assigned to watch the game of a suspected player. Upon watching the footage, you will assess whether they are cheating or not. If you see that the player is blatantly cheating, submit your verdict and conclude that they are using cheats.

If you have successfully reported a guilty player, Valve will take action and issue a VAC ban, which ensures their account can no longer play on official Valve matchmaking servers.

Overall, it cannot be denied that official Valve matchmaking is a complete mess. The leaderboards are infested with cheaters, and it is impossible to play high-elo games since there is at least one cheater in every single match.

As a result, the FACEIT platform continues to thrive despite the new game. FACEIT is a third-party matchmaking platform for competitive players who take the game seriously. Even though they are not a billion-dollar company like Valve, they have developed a fully functional Anti-Cheat system that weeds out 99% of hackers.

Additionally, FACEIT servers are played on 128 tick, while official Valve servers are using subtick. It is quite bizarre that a smaller company like FACEIT is doing a better job of providing players with a fair and fun experience than the original developers of the game. If you cannot stand the amount of CS2 cheaters on Premier and Competitive matchmaking, you can always sign up for a FACEIT account for free.