Counter-Strike 2 is facing a huge cheating problem. From casual matches to high-stakes competitive games, players across the board are frustrated with cheaters ruining the experience. Valve’s current anti-cheat system, VAC-NET, operates mainly on the server side, which in theory is good—it’s less invasive and respects player privacy. But in practice, it’s falling short. Right now, VAC-NET misses a lot.

Other popular games, like Valorant and Call of Duty, use kernel-level anti-cheat systems that dive deep into players’ systems to catch cheats. Valve has been hesitant to take this route, mostly to avoid potential privacy issues. But as VAC-NET struggles to keep up with new cheats appearing daily, it’s clear that CS2’s server-only approach isn’t cutting it. It can barely catch basic cheats, let alone more subtle ones like radar hacks.

Even in an ideal world where VAC-NET could detect every cheat that a server-side anti-cheat can, it still wouldn’t be enough. Imagine a scenario: a pro team using radar information to track the number of opponents at a bombsite. If only one player is using this tool without any obvious cheats, yet the whole team has this unfair edge, how is a server-side anti-cheat supposed to pick that up? It can’t.

A Solution Valve Should Consider

Here’s a balanced approach that could tackle CS2’s cheating problems while respecting privacy for casual players:

  • Improve VAC-NET: Just making VAC-NET more effective at spotting cheats would make a huge difference.
  • Reintroduce Overwatch: This community-driven system allowed players to review suspicious matches and report cheaters. It worked in CS:GO but was removed in CS2. Overwatch helps catch what VAC-NET misses and can also improve the system over time.
  • Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat for Competitive Modes: Valve’s concerns about privacy for casual players are valid, but competitive play is a different matter. For serious matches, requiring a bit of privacy compromise makes sense. A kernel-level anti-cheat could detect cheats VAC-NET can’t, like radar hacks, ensuring a fairer competitive scene.

This approach would keep competitive play clean and fair, while still giving casual players a choice. Valve, it’s time to prioritize anti-cheat and secure CS2’s future.