CS2 cheaters can be the absolute bane of your existence. They can ruin games at the drop of a hat, with wallhacks and aimlocks making it impossible to have a fair game of CS. The sad thing is, it’s only getting worse, too. That’s why you need to do all you can to avoid cheaters in CS2, whether you’re playing Premier, Competitive, or FACEIT.
Avoid CS2 cheaters with Green Trust Factor
To start off simple, you need to make sure your account is in good standing. Valve measures this with Green Trust Factor, which is automatically given to accounts that receive commendations in-game and is just all around very trustworthy.
There’s a little more to earning Green Trust Factor; you can find out how in our guide here. Getting Green Trust Factor will improve the quality of matchmaking for your account, thus helping to avoid cheaters in CS2.
Have tons of hours played in CS2
If you’ve ever played on a smurf account, you’ll know that accounts with very few hours encounter CS2 cheaters in practically every lobby. That’s not an exaggeration, either – frankly, the new player experience in CS2 is appalling. On paper, it’s a simple concept – Valve matches new accounts with others who have very few hours in the game. In theory, it’s great, allowing new players to all play against one another to get better.
In practice, the reality is quite different. Accounts with very few hours are often using Counter-Strike cheats, in the knowledge that they’re losing very little should they get banned. That’s why to avoid cheaters in CS2, you should get a lot of hours in the game. You can do this by running the game in the background while you’re doing other things on your PC. It’s silly, but that’s the reality of CS2 at the moment.
Buy Prime Status to avoid cheaters in CS2
Buying Prime Status to avoid CS2 cheaters is an absolute necessity. The free-to-play version of the game is infested with Counter-Strike cheats, and why wouldn’t it be? If players know there’s nothing at stake if they’re banned, they’re just going to cheat forever.
No. Go and upgrade your account to Prime Status for just $14.99. This will drastically reduce the number of cheaters in CS2, whether it be aimlock or wallhacks.
Playing FACEIT helps to avoid CS2 cheaters
If you’re encountering plenty of CS2 cheaters in Premier, then hopping over to another third-party matchmaking platform like FACEIT or Renown could help you avoid them. Premier mode uses VAC, which is unfortunately notoriously terrible at catching cheaters in CS2.
However, FACEIT uses a kernel-level anti-cheat which, while too intrusive for some players, is undoubtedly better at helping you avoid cheaters in CS2. The games are better quality in general, so if the amount of CS2 cheaters playing Premier is getting you down, this is the next step to take.
How can you tell if a CS2 player is cheating?
There are a few telltale signs that a player is using CS2 cheats. Perfect timing and absurd prefires every time are usually a good indicator, but it can just be indicative of a great player having a lifegame.
One way to check is by heading to a player’s Steam profile during the match. In the steamcommunity.com URL, place a W before the first s. The URL should look something like this: “wsteamcommunity.com/playernamehere.” Hit enter, and this will take you to a site called CSWatch, which automatically aggregates statistics from services like Leetify to see if someone is cheating. You can see my CSWatch analysis here – as you can see, no cheats in sight. This isn’t a perfect method, but if a player in your 15k Premier lobby is averaging 98 Aim Rating, then yeah, you can safely say they’re cheating.
Alternatively, you can download and rewatch demos after a match to figure out if a suspicious player is using Counter-Strike cheats. You should report them in-game regardless – it’s better to be safe than sorry. But I’ve had multiple occasions where I’ve thought a player was cheating, only to watch the demo and realize they were just a really good player. It was quite humbling, really. This won’t help you avoid cheaters in CS2, but it’s a good way to learn and get better in the game.
Why are there so many cheaters in CS2?
It’s an interesting combo of a few factors. The first is Valve Anti-Cheat. It’s not just a “fine” anti-cheat system. It’s actively bad, and players take advantage of that. It makes avoiding CS2 cheaters very difficult. The fact that players react with vitriol only serves to fuel those using Counter-Strike cheats to get a reaction.
