Since February 2024, Valve has disabled the anti-cheat system in CS 2. Matchmaking and Premier have been flooded with cheaters, whose numbers increased with each passing day. It reached absurd levels when servers hosted up to 10 players using cheats, with the team employing the most aggressive cheat settings emerging victorious.
In May, the company reactivated the anti-cheat system, which had been collecting user data for several months. The initial crackdown targeted farmers, followed by a wave of bans punishing cheaters with Rage functionality: spinbots, aimbots, bunnyhopping, and disabled spread. According to Gabe Follower, bans are currently issued only for playing in Premier mode: "Those who consistently played competitive matchmaking haven't been significantly affected yet. The global leaderboard, infested with cheaters, was a major concern for the developers, so they prioritized addressing the most obvious issues first. This is evident from the subsequent cleaning of the top ranks."
Players using less aggressive cheats like wallhacks or slight adjustments still go unpunished by the anti-cheat system.
The scale of the ban wave remains unknown. Typically, cheaters receive a message about their ban from the patrol. Much less frequently, they received a one-day ban if VAC flagged their game as suspicious.
By the way, VAC Live is now operational, halting matches immediately if a cheater is detected. In such cases, no player loses points, and the violator is immediately blocked.
However, none of the players have gained access to the patrol yet, despite Valve announcing its return in the latest update. Gabe Follower even states that the patrol is not yet operational and has only been added to the game as a placeholder.
Valve has finally struck a blow against cheaters, particularly in the game's most popular mode. The issue with dozens of cheaters in the global rankings and numerous videos showcasing cheats has finally been addressed. Ahead lies a long journey of combating less obvious but more dangerous cheaters, whose detection is much more challenging.