In recent weeks, cheaters in Counter-Strike 2 have had the upper hand, but the tide seems to have turned now.
How did the bans come about? Anyone who has played Counter-Strike 2 in recent weeks has most likely encountered a cheater. The problem has grown so large lately that even prominent members of the CS2 community announced on YouTube that they would no longer play the game.
Now, however, Valve has seemingly flipped the switch overnight and banned a large number of cheaters, allegedly using artificial intelligence.
If you want to reminisce, we have the trailer for you that started CS:GO:
Valve flips the switch and clears the lobbies
What has Valve done? Without much announcement, Valve seems to have flipped the switch and swung the ban-hammer. In videos on X (formerly Twitter), you can see lobbies with up to 9 banned players – only one is left. Since April 26, the bans have been rising rapidly.
The changes to the anti-cheat system were only briefly mentioned in the patch notes from April 25. It states: “Overwatch system added to allow demo analyses of games by trusted partners.”
So far, however, no one in the community has been found who has access to the system. But in the following video on X (formerly Twitter), you can see how the system removes 9 cheaters at once.
Where do the bans come from? That’s basically the “million Euro” question. The CS2 YouTuber Gabe Follower went on a search for clues regarding the ban wave in his video and found some interesting evidence.
According to his research, players who clearly cheated were primarily banned. So those who used aimbots, spinbots, or other cheats that are obviously recognizable as cheating. Players who only cheat a little, for example with wallhacks or radar hacks, would not be affected.
The YouTuber concludes from his research that Valve has now launched the first version of their anti-cheat based on artificial intelligence. This is supported by the fact that cheaters did not receive VAC bans but rather an in-game ban. This suggests that Valve’s normal anti-cheat system is not being used here.
Another point is the obvious cheating, which could be recognized more easily by the AI and Valve would have higher confidence in the accuracy of those affected. After all, they wouldn’t want to ban innocents.
Whether artificial intelligence is truly behind the bans is known to no one but the developers 100%. The legitimate players are just glad that the cheaters are being banned. In the shooter The Finals, a player outsmarted a cheater: Player defeats cheater in The Finals with an unusual weapon – “I was invincible to him”
