How to Avoid Cheaters in CS2: Tips to Improve Your Gameplay

Cheaters are an annoying part of Counter-Strike, and have been that for a long time. In this article we'll give you the best tips and tricks to avoid these nasty hackers and play a fair game of Counter-Strike!

Increase Your Trust Factor

Valve uses a very specific algorithm to divide players into good guys and bad guys, called the Trust Factor. If you argue, grief, or troll, your likelihood of getting reported increases, and thus, your Trust Factor decreases.

Another thing you’ll want to avoid so as not to lower your Trust Factor is smurfing. Hey, we know it’s fun to play with your noob friend and destroy their noob opponents, but in the end, you might end up in a lobby with other smurfs, or worse, cheaters.

Valve doesn’t disclose exactly how Trust Factor works, but in our experience, avoiding these behaviors will ensure that you’ll avoid most cheaters.

However, some cheaters aren’t as obvious, or may not yet be caught by the Trust Factor system, so a high trust factor isn’t a guarantee you’ll avoid cheaters. As of late, you can help limit the cheating problem on your own as well.

Use Overwatch - When It’s Available

Overwatch is back in Counter-Strike 2, allowing you to do your part when it comes to reviewing player reports and seeing whether a player in question is cheating, becoming the CS2 Jury.

To be eligible for Overwatch you must have:

At least 300 hrs in Counter-Strike 2
At least 150 wins in competitive modes
No VAC bans on record
High trust factor

If you’re selected, you’ll see a shield symbol in the top menu, and you’ll be able to review demos of a given player. These demos will give you the POV of a player, and you’ll be tasked with deciding whether they’re a cheater or a clean player who’s simply better than their opponents.

While telling a spinbotter apart from a legit player is easy, finding a “legit cheater” might be harder. What you should look out for is:

Weird crosshair placement, especially if it correlates to another player’s position through a wall.
Sudden crosshair locking right to a player’s head.
Suspicious changes in positioning depending on the enemy’s movement without any prompt.

Note that these aren’t surefire ways to say if someone’s cheating. Every flusha fan knows that every pro can have a bunch of suspicious clips. That’s why it’s also important to analyze other aspects of a player’s behavior. Is their movement good, is their crosshair placement usually at a high level? If they look good, one suspicious moment shouldn’t be enough to ban somebody. Somebody getting insane headshots after constantly aiming at someone’s crotch? Yeah, that’s sus.

So once Overwatch is available, put your detective cap on and find the wrongdoers while saving the legit bosses. It’s not much, but it’s honest work that will help reduce the number of cheaters, and in the end, benefit you as well.

Play FACEIT

If you’re absolutely tired of cheaters in CS2, there’s always an alternative in the FACEIT ladder. FACEIT is an external service that offers its own anti-cheat and allows you to play against players who treat the game a bit more seriously. However, this comes at a price. As of writing, FACEIT subscriptions...

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