We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

New Counter-Strike 2 ban wave kills cheaters right before your eyes

A new Counter-Strike 2 ban wave is helping fix the CSGO sequel by killing cheaters right before our eyes, as Valve cleans up its core FPS.

Counter-Strike 2 ban wave: A soldier with a rifle in Valve FPS game Counter-Strike 2
Ed Smith's Avatar

Published:

Counter-Strike 2 

If exploits and cheaters have been ruining your Counter-Strike 2 experience lately, now might be the time to finally return to Valve’s tentpole FPS, as a new ban wave rolls the over multiplayer shooter causing dozens of CS2 ne’er do wells to drop dead on the spot. Based on footage from a few Counter-Strike 2 veterans, you can actually see the CS2 ban wave having an effect in real time. Combined with the latest, vital Counter-Strike 2 update, things could be looking up.

Specifically, the new Counter-Strike 2 ban wave appears to be targeted at players who use the rapid fire and ‘no spread’ cheats, which increase the amount of bullets weapons fire per second and eliminate recoil respectively. The FPS game uses Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC Live) to detect and ban rule-breaking accounts.

A new anti-cheat measure, Overwatch, is also set to launch soon for Counter-Strike 2 – like in CSGO, trusted players will review footage and demos to identify if aimbots or other hacks have been used, and issue penalties accordingly. The latest ban wave, however, is not connected to Overwatch.

Instead, Counter-Strike 2 players are receiving game bans and then dropping dead right in the middle of matches. If you’ve been plagued by cheaters in CS2, the following footage, shared by Counter-Strike player and data miner ‘Aquarius,’ is sure to be a delight.

Though it hasn’t released the raw data yet, aggregator and data tracking site Counter-Strike Stats says that on the weekend of Saturday April 27, it recorded the second highest number of VAC bans in a single day since a huge spike in 2019.

Counter-Strike 2 ban wave: A table showing banned accounts in Valve FPS game Counter-Strike 2

So, if you log into Counter-Strike 2 in the next few days and see your comrades or competitors suddenly dropping to the floor and all the textures vanishing from their bodies, don’t worry, it’s just a part of nature healing. Speaking of which, the new Counter-Strike 2 update finally adds a feature we’ve been waiting for since launch.

Check out the best Counter-Strike 2 crosshairs, to help bolster your accuracy, or use the Counter-Strike 2 best binds to improve every aspect of your play.

You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.

Previously of Edge, Vice, Polygon, and the BBC, Ed is symbiotically connected to the gaming news matrix, covering everything from Cities Skylines 2 road tools, to Half-Life mods, and classic boomer shooters. Between Counter-Strike 2, Starfield, and Resident Evil - as well as everything and anything related to GTA 6 - he has a close eye on the heady world of videogames, and can often be found lamenting the tragedy that IO Interactive’s Freedom Fighters never got a sequel. He was once in the top ten for speedrunning the original Resident Evil 2 and has a weird knowledge of how RNG works in Doom.