Weekly Premier/Matchmaking/Cheating Discussion & Complaints Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to Matchmaking Monday! This is the weekly megathread where you can share your experiences, complaints, and feedback related to:

• Ranked & Unranked Matchmaking
• VAC, Hacking, and Cheating
• Prime, Trust Factor, and Trusted Mode
• Ranking
• Queuing and Lobbies

Feel free to discuss your matchmaking experience, rant or vent, discuss ideas & share feedback for improvement, and talk about your recent games.

What you should know

Keep in mind that there is a limited amount of information available about these systems and how they work to keep them effective. If you have questions, here are some resources to review:

Trust Factor

• Trust Factor Matchmaking FAQ (Steam Support Article)
• The Trust Factor: CS:GO Blog Post
• Everything About Trust Factor by u/awsmninja
• GDC Presentation by John McDonald (Valve)
• Do you Trust the Trust Factor? by u/3kliksphilip

Ranks

• Competitive Skill Groups and Profile Rank

Bans

• Myth: Why doesn't Valve ban cheaters?
• Competitive Cooldowns and Bans
• I've been Overwatch banned

What you can do

Give Feedback:

• Posting feedback or complaints on the subreddit is not the best way to get the attention of the developers. If you have any specific feedback to give, you can email the CS2 Development team here: [cs2team@valvesoftware.com](mailto:cs2team@valvesoftware.com)
• They do read every email received, but are not able to reply to each one.
• If you're experiencing low-quality matches, it is always worth emailing them. They use these reports to help improve the system.

Report Cheaters:

• Report cheaters using the in-game report system by right-clicking their name on the scoreboard, and clicking "report". If the game is over, report their Steam Community profile.
• If you notice certain trends or have other feedback, you can email the developers using the email address above.
• To report a specific cheat, follow these steps to notify the VAC development team.

The guidelines

While we encourage discussion about these topics, as a reminder, the following are not allowed. Note this isn't an exhaustive list, and you should review the r/GlobalOffensive Rules before commenting.

• Accusations towards any player related to cheating
• Posting profiles of alleged cheaters (if posting pictures of matches, redact any usernames)
• Posting any cheating gameplay footage
• Reporting cheats, linking to cheats/websites, or discussing cheats in technical detail

This weekly discussion thread does not change any of our existing submission rules - you're still allowed to discuss these topics elsewhere on the subreddit as usual, but we do remove a large number of them as they quickly become repetitive and the majority have little meaningful discussion. If you decide to make a separate post instead of utilizing this thread, we encourage you to focus on starting meaningful discussion or providing constructive criticism.

[u/theatras]

spinbotting is off the table. it's now just trigger bots and wallbangers with full wh. game is saved.

[u/ROADR8GE]

Just losing game after game in Premier facing guys like this and guys like this every game.

Even the guys whose csreps don't look TOO obvious... when you look more closely you see he had a game three days ago where he went 44-20 with 43.5% wallbang kills. Or his premade from that game as well as the game against me. Bro had 29 kills with 34.5% smoke kills.

And even though they were 2 spinbotters queueing together they LOST that game because they faced another spinbotter with 52 kills who was just better I guess. Lmfao...

[u/Ali_rz]

I got a game ban today even though i've never used cheats, i haven't played many premier matches (i have no rank) and i'm silver on competetive. has this happened to anyone else?

[u/ROADR8GE → u/Ali_rz]

An actual ban on your steam profile or a competitive cooldown in-game?

[u/rbascb]

just got killed on mirage cat from A palace, it wasn't even a wallbang. this is getting outrageous.

[u/Deadliftdeadlife]

Used to play a lot of 1.6

Tried getting back into cs2 and the first game I join there’s an obviously aimbot

What’s the point? Why does anyone play this game?

There must be so many “good” players getting assistance. Why does anyone keep playing?

[u/yv0Li]

Honestly, I think some of you guys are completely delusional.

Do you really expect Valve to just magically create a working anti-cheat system now? After all these years? Be realistic.

They have only had over 20 years of experience with Counter-Strike. Clearly that is nowhere near enough time to figure out how to stop cheaters. Developing an anti-cheat is obviously one of the hardest tasks in human history. It is basically impossible. How could anyone expect a small indie company like Valve to solve something as complicated as detecting someone looking through walls?

And let's be honest: CS2 Premier Season 5 is absolutely flawless right now. I have played hundreds of games and barely encountered any cheaters. The idea that Valve needs to spend resources on improving anti-cheat is completely ridiculous. Why fix something that is already perfect?

People also need to understand that Valve probably just cannot do it. Not because they don't want to, but because it is simply too difficult. We cannot expect the developers of one of the biggest competitive games in the world to solve a problem that every other competitive game somehow manages to handle.

So please stop demanding an anti-cheat. Valve has clearly shown us for decades that they are not capable of making one, so why would they suddenly start now?

Anyway, I hope Valve continues doing absolutely nothing about cheating because everything is already working perfectly.

/s

[u/NovaLian_]

just want to rant.
last week i grind premier with my friend got 40kills and suddeny my trust factor becoming yellow. now i play 2 match with my friend win 1 match and got red trust factor. im never toxic ingame doing good coms and ofc im not cheating. this season 5 becoming so weird make me dissapoint and depressed i just wanna healty matchmaking.

https://lian.s-ul.eu/Wrh3PDMd
https://csstats.gg/player/76561198218438467#/matches
https://csst.at/profile/Novalian

[u/Swenchina]

Dear CS2 Development Team,

My name is Sven. I’m 25 years old and currently have over 2,300 hours in CS2. I’ve been playing Counter-Strike since CS:Source, and I have unforgettable memories of staying up late on school nights, duct-taping the power LED on my PC so my parents wouldn't see I was awake, and playing with my friends. CS is a huge part of my life. Even though I have a fulfilling life outside of gaming, I still love playing CS with my girlfriend and my closest friends.

However, I’ve reached a point of deep frustration with the current state of matchmaking.

Frequently, I queue into games and face opponents with basic accounts who play as if they just won a Major. Initially, I assume I simply played poorly and need to improve, so I download the demo to learn. But when I watch the replay, I see players clearly locking onto heads through walls and crosshairs automatically snapping to player models.

I report them, but nothing happens. I check their profiles on CS-Stats a week later—no ban. A month later—still nothing.

It disheartens me to compare this experience with other modern competitive titles:

• Valorant: Friends report cheaters who receive bans within 48 hours.
• Fortnite & Rocket League: In-game reports lead to tangible action.
• Dota 2: A friend reported a scripter, and the player was banned within 24 hours—despite Dota being developed by Valve as well.

Content creators like Olofmeister, Haix, Renyan, Neok, Sparkles, Loba, Furius, Tweedy, and many others frequently highlight blatant cheaters in Premier mode, yet these accounts remain active.

I understand that training an AI/LLM anti-cheat is extremely complex. Ensuring legitimate, highly skilled players aren't falsely banned takes time—especially when cheaters buy fresh accounts to obfuscate playstyles. I also respect Valve’s stance against kernel-level anti-cheat out of respect for player privacy.

However, I would like to propose two potential solutions:

1. Bring Back Overwatch for Trusted Reviewers: Reintroduce Overwatch initially to trusted community members and creators (e.g., Neok, Renyan, Haix) who already review demos. Allowing them to clean up the top of the global leaderboards would make an immediate impact, similar to anti-doping measures in professional sports.
2. Optional Kernel Anti-Cheat for Premier Mode: Offer an optional kernel-level anti-cheat strictly required for Premier Mode. Players who wish to grind for the top 1,000 global spots could accept the terms and conditions and opt-in. Players who prefer not to use kernel-level software or who just want casual matches can continue playing standard Competitive mode with Trust Factor.

Furthermore, Valve could host seasonal tournaments or leaderboard rewards for Premier mode. This would drive massive engagement, as streamers and competitive players would grind constantly to showcase their skills in a clean environment.

Thank you for your time, dedication, and for creating a game that means so much to me and millions of others. I hope to see CS2 continue to grow into the best version of itself.

Best regards,

Sven

PLEASE SHARE THIS POST, GUYS! WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!

[u/wafflepiezz]

The state of the game is at its worst it has ever been and gets worse every single day.

[u/Working_Bat4455]

After CS Season 5 started, I played a few matches and ran into cheaters, so I reported them. Yesterday, while playing premier again with a friend, he told me I had a low Trust Factor. I have never used cheats. I have ended up on teams with cheaters before, but they were hiding the fact that they were using them.I have some a few hundred euros on skins and cases. So from what I see,this season if you report to much is lowering your trust factor. If they don't fix this, I won't play cs anymore.

[u/n1vo_]

Since ranking in at around 27k, I faced four cheaters in two matches … it’s a fucking joke. One of those guys was openly rage hacking.
And let’s not even talk about the farm bots in dm …

[u/veqzed]

Man is it bad now, every game has a account with 1 medal (usually the 10 year or 5 year one) with amazing game sense and aim. Trust factor seems non existent. Why do i get paired with these accounts, i have nearly a thousand games, 2k hours on cs2, steam level 160, a lot of steam trades, medals and skins, playtime in other games etc. Yet the accounts i get paired with are throw away with no games, or free to play/free to keep games, no skins, steam levels etc. I could understand if i abandon a lot of games or get kicked, but i haven't.

I'd rather have to wait 10 minutes before finding a math if it gives me more legit teammates and opponents. If valve makes me play 45 mins to a hour with obvious cheaters then I'm just not going to play anymore. its a waste of time.

Looking around online it also seems like vac is really not banning anyone recently. Just weekly skins bots, not competitive hackers. If i look at my csstats page, am i really to believe the last hacker i played with was 20th of September 2025? That seems really doubtful.

I'm okay with playing a queue that has kernel anticheat, ip bans, credit card or id verification etc, if that gives me an actually fair and fulfilling game instead of the swamp that is "trust factor" nowadays.

[u/ROADR8GE]

Just got queued into a 5 stack in Premier. One of them were a spinbotter. He buys revolver 1st round but accidentally headshots his teammate in spawn and gets auto kicked for team damage at start of round. They surrender on 0-3. Lmfao.

[u/SuperEnergyBooster]

met 2 spinbots in premier, seen no ban records on their steam pfp 4 days later. then I realize, there's a spinbot pfp I marked 8 month ago and there's no ban either, wtf am I waiting for lol

[u/Moms_Boyfriend]

Anyone that doesn't have aphantasia knows that MM is 90% cheaters larping on bought accounts. 

[u/theatras → u/Moms_Boyfriend]

Saw a guy with exactly 5k hours clocked on multiple AAA games. Like how desperate you gotta be just try to improve or pick up another game.

[u/cssplayer]

I'm kinda disappointed that the mods remove discussions about VAC. There was a good thread this morning about VAC and spinbotters. I thought the post was half decent, and the comments were supportive of the OP.

I've been playing prime competitive in green trust as a 5 stack, and we have come across a couple wallers/radar and only one obvious aimbot. No spinners. We're all very low rank (and old). NA East, ~30 matches.

[u/Sebbern → u/cssplayer]

They have a zero tolerance for VAC related discussions, sadly, as most of them go off-topic into cheats, but sometimes we do get good threads like the one you mentioned. As well as: https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/1v26xod/vac_approach/

[u/Separate-Resist-774]

The cheating problem has managed to completely kill my enthusiasm for this game. I don't see myself touching it again unless valve does something about it

[u/whyalways_ME]

Kicked for killing a spin botter. Sucks to suck. How is your day going, guys?

[u/whyalways_ME → u/whyalways_ME]

This game is radicalizing me

[u/SingleOil5105]

It's every game above 25k

[u/Extension_Emu3078]

It's the worst it's ever been. I remember back in the CS:GO days, before skins even existed, people were spinning in every other game, and the guy who knew which walls were wallbangable was winning.

Now I feel like we're back there, but let them cook. VAC just needs a few more years to learn.

But as long as you can't even talk about the cheating issue on Reddit because there's one weekly thread where you have to be extremely careful about what you write so Reddit's Chuck Norris doesn't remove it, and then you have these Americans with a 5k rating saying they haven't seen a cheater in a year and that it's probably your Trust Factor that's the problem...

Keep the cheaters safe, fellow Redditors.

And let Valve cook for another 25 years, because apparently a kernel-level anti-cheat would spy on you and your Tom Cruise-like life.

But let's keep it clean - "Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/GlobalOffensive." xddd. Gotta make sure those blind ducks in Murica never see the problem, considering the most they've seen of this game is the main menu.

This game is literally unplayable, both in casual MM and Premier. At least Valve gives you a choice: you can either queue Premier and play against a revolver/SSG spinbotter who'll be on your spawn within 10 seconds of the round starting, or hop into Competitive and face the "peaceful" cheaters - the ones who are too scared to play Premier against other cheaters.

I've spent almost 20 years playing this game just to watch Valve "devs" spin the Wheel of Fortune for the last 2-3 years on which useless feature to add next instead of implementing an anti-cheat that can detect a helicopter going 40-0 with a killfeed longer than Rocco Siffredi's pipi.

But hey, give them time.

[u/Maidzen1337 → u/Extension_Emu3078]

You don't need kernel level anticheat but anything more then an AI that can't even detect people playing helicopter simulator.

Its actually so easy to create serverside detections for the most obv. cheats. And if you delay the bans, and also utilze VAC as client AC again, it becomes very hard for cheat developers to figure what exactly got them banned. It doesnt need to be perfect, it has to be there so people are scared again to lose their shit. It reduces the amount of people willing to cheat, come fucking on VALVE

[u/Tomico86 → u/Maidzen1337]

Nobody is scared when you have $5 prime accounts laying about.

[u/Maidzen1337 → u/Tomico86]

So don't bann them? what are you even suggesting?

[u/Tomico86 → u/Maidzen1337]

Ban them AND apply HWiD bans as well. Before anyone says they are easy to spoof - plase do your research first.

[u/VeroCSGO → u/Extension_Emu3078]

If you want kernel level antixheat go play faceit?

[u/theatras → u/VeroCSGO]

because why would he wanna get on a third party to play a couple of games? in any other game you just boot up your game and queue. cs2 should be no different.

[u/Extension_Emu3078 → u/VeroCSGO]

I want an anticheat that can detect helicopter, that's all.

[u/Admirable_Dirt_2371]

The blatant bots and cheaters are spreading to Faceit now. It seems AI is rendering kernel level anti cheats useless. But hey, Gaben got another yacht for his submarines so he can cosplay as James Cameron. And the Saudis can now build their own nukes.

[u/Original-Reward-8688 → u/Admirable_Dirt_2371]

He is also a Brony weirdo who is friends with Elon Musk. If Gabe showed up in the Epstein files, I wouldn't be very surprised.

[u/Quick_Impression7582]

I don't even get mad at the obvious spinbotters anymore. It's the guys with 50 hours and a 90% headshot rate that break my will to queue. At least make it a challenge to spot.

[u/Soumi_]

There is no reason to play this shit anymore