CS2 dev is reversing ‘false VAC’ bans but fans complain game bans remain

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The launch of Counter-Strike 2 has been a mixed bag. There have been numerous issues affecting players, and one of them is game bans. Valve’s patch notes for October 19th say they are reversing CS2 VAC bans caused by AMD, but fans are suggesting nothing has actually been fixed.

Counter-Strike 2 fully launched in late September. It has gone on to become the worst-rated Valve game ever on Steam, and this is because of several problems. Pros have said it’s not ready for eSports due to discovered hitbox bugs, and arguably the biggest problem has been bans resulting in nuked accounts with skins worth thousands.

Valve says they are reversing nuked accounts caused by AMD, yet game bans still persist according to the disgruntled community.

Valve is reversing CS2 VAC bans

The October 19th patch notes for Counter-Strike 2 say Valve is ‘reversing VAC bans for affected players’. Valve has added a ‘startup check for incompatible AMD graphics drivers,’ and this should fix the issue. These ‘false VAC‘ bans were caused by fans enabling AMD’s anti-lag/+, which resulted in tampering with CS code.

Since the patch notes, fans have complained nothing has been fixed. Reddit user matchew-choo says they were given a game ban for using AMD’s anti-lag, and the game ban still remains. User Pappapettson provided a screenshot showing they still have a game ban, too, meaning they can’t queue any games at all. Another user said the ‘trust factor needs to be restored otherwise the game will still be unplayable‘. This user claims they received an ‘extremely low trust factor and couldn’t find a match after searching for 25 minutes,’ and the next day they received a game ban which soon turned into a VAC ban. The VAC ban is gone, but the game ban remains.

Hopefully these issues will be resolved in the near-future. Game bans have come from numerous issues such as high mouse DPI and the AMD anti-lag, so it’s apparent there are lots of problems that need to be fixed. One user commented ‘Valve really need to do an unban wave for high DPI people and other false game bans‘ as well as work on their anti-cheat. 

About the Author

Callum Smith

Callum Smith is a freelance gaming writer for Videogamer. He covers news for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and he has over five years experience covering the video games industry.

Counter Strike 2

  • Platform(s): Linux, PC
  • Genre(s): First-Person Shooter, Shooter