It certainly looks like not much has changed in CS2 matchmaking since the game was released in September. Players are becoming more and more concerned about the Premier mode as more suspicious and blatant cheating clips have surfaced over the past week.
Even a novice shooter fan can see that something’s off with the clip below, specifically the first one. If this player actually is legit (zero percent chance), they should get an esports team on the line immediately; aim like this is worth millions. It’s too bad this top-of-the-leaderboard player is probably not legit in any way, shape, or form, though.
It isn’t just the very pinnacle of CS2 competition that has been affected, either. Alleged cheaters have more or less free rein at the 15,000-plus Elo range as well.
It’s unfortunate that such a solid entry in the Counter-Strike franchise is being hit with the exact same issues CS:GO faced. Premier was clearly intended to be the main way to play CS2 for anyone remotely serious about competition. It’s become increasingly obvious that if you want a good competitive experience, though, you’ll need to hit up the FACEIT third-party servers.
Valve will need time to get the core gameplay sorted out, and it’s made lots of progress already. Elements of desync and problems with the servers are slowly being smoothed out, and the game is improving rapidly. Cheating is another issue entirely, though. Without invasive kernel-level anti-cheats, it’s a never-ending fight.
As long as low-skill players are willing to pay to get an advantage over their opponents, cheating will be a business, and therefore, it becomes an arms race between developers and cheat-makers. Valve has committed lots of resources to making CS2 the definitive CS experience, but without fairness in its matchmaking, it simply won’t be the game Valve hopes it will be.
