A few months ago, I received an email inviting me to Renown, a new CS2 matchmaking platform looking to provide an alternative to the likes of FACEIT and Premier mode. Despite signing up for the waitlist, I ignored the invitation at first. I was happy with my lot in life.
My attitude changed after one particular Elo loss-heavy night on FACEIT. I still had the competitive itch, but didn’t fancy tanking my FACEIT Elo any further. The madness, mayhem, and miscommunication of Premier didn’t quite appeal, either. So I signed up for the Renown CS2 matchmaking platform, deciding to see what the fuss was about. I figured it would still allow me to enjoy the game in a competitive setting and maybe, just maybe, find a new favorite way to play CS2 in the process.
So, is Renown a real contender in the CS2 matchmaking space, or merely a pretender? I played 10 games across five (non-consecutive) days to find out whether this new CS2 matchmaking service has what it takes to stick around for the long haul.
Renown CS2 matchmaking: The basics
The Renown CS2 matchmaking service dubs itself as being “built by dedicated CS players to deliver the ultimate competitive experience,” boasting “matches free of cheaters and toxicity, exclusively for players who pass our review process.” The platform is currently only available in Europe, although it claims it “will expand to include more players over time.” Unfortunately, the restrictions don’t stop there. Match queues are currently only open 16:00–00:00 GMT between Monday and Thursday, and 14:00–01:00 between Friday and Sunday. The logic is to “ensure everything runs smooth and keep queue times short,” with plans to “gradually expand availability.” It sucks, but I totally get it.
Right now, Renown is invite-only, with players who sign up for the waitlist selected by analysis of recent Leetify games on both Premier and FACEIT. This integration extends even further, with full match analysis provided over on Leetify after every match. I was already an avid Leetify user, so this was definitely a pleasant surprise. This, combined with the public leaderboard on Renown, generates a real competitive feeling on that platform that any serious CS player should enjoy.
If selected and granted entry, you can play Renown CS2 matches for free. Full matchmaking access costs nothing here, which is a nice touch. A Premium subscription can be purchased for £6.99 a month, offering in-game drops (more on that soon) and an exclusive role in the active Renown Discord server. You can upgrade further to include Leetify Pro in your subscription for a monthly price of £9.49. Given the lack of matchmaking perks and the fact that it costs more than FACEIT Plus, I’d be hard-pressed to say the Premium options represent strong value for money.
Along the line of basic features, the transparency of the Renown CS2 service is a breath of fresh air. A public ban list is readily available, allowing you to see the who, why, and when of it all. A feedback forum on both the Renown site and Discord is open and active, allowing players to communicate directly with the developers to get their voices heard. It’s the right step for a project in its infancy.
Renown CS2 Ranking system
For many players, a good ranking system takes priority over all else. Renown uses a fairly standard ranking system, with the following ranks and Elo distributions:
- Bronze: 3,000 – 6,999
- Silver: 7,000 – 10,999
- Gold: 11,000 – 14,999
- Platinum: 15,000 – 18,999
- Diamond: 19,000 – 21,999
- Master: 22,000 – 24,999
- Renowned: 25,000+
Ranks are given upon sign-up and are presumably based on existing FACEIT and Premier ranks. As a starting point, it works fine at putting players approximately where they should be from the off, rather than having to stomp and be stomped for multiple games before finally finding their place.
What really surprised me is how transparent Renown is about its CS2 ranking system, making the calculation formula for Elo gain and loss available for all to see:
- New Elo = Current Elo + (K-factor x Diff multiplier x Aband. factor) x (Actual result – Expected result)
For the full information about each individual factor, consult the image below.
So, yeah. The Renown CS2 ranking system is a winner. More transparency like this is always appreciated, because it at least feels as though the system is fair for everyone equally.
Why play CS2 on Renown over FACEIT?
It’s valid to ask why bother committing to another platform when FACEIT is right there. For many, the question of the best CS2 matchmaking platform is already a settled debate. Well, there are a couple of cool features that I think make Renown a worthy place to play CS2.
The first is the revolving eighth map. There are seven maps in the CS2 Active Duty map pool. Renown features an eighth at all times, selected from community maps and the current Reserves group. At the time of writing, Vertigo is the eighth map, but it has also previously been Overpass and Cache. Overpass has since been added to Active Duty, so it’s fair to assume Anubis will have a stint as Renown’s eighth map in the future. This gives you an excellent opportunity to keep up with the maps you don’t play too often while they’re out of Active Duty, while still playing them at a high level with players of (approximately) your skill level. The eighth map feature is a huge plus in favor of Renown.
Then, there are Drops. Drops are available to Premium players only, with the chance to drop after every game. During my 10 matches, only two saw Drops go to players, one of which was to me. I received the AWP Capillary in Min Wear, which is worth under £1. When you get a Drop, a Renown bot will automatically send you a Steam trade offer – you just need to accept it. The service does claim to have CS2 Knives, Gloves, and rarer skins up for potential Drop rewards, but these shouldn’t be expected all too often.
With my 10-match sample size, it’s hard to say just how representative this is of the general drop rate. I can say that at the time of writing, Renown boasts over 600 drops across the last 30 days.
The Renown CS2 Match Search Experience
I’m going to broadly preface this section by saying that I broadly like the Renown CS2 matchmaking service. However, the match search experience is my biggest reservation in its current state, largely stemming from one big problem: the low player count.
To contextualize everything here, I’m going to start with the queue times from all ten of my Renown CS2 matches:
- Match 1: 10 minutes
- Match 2: 29 minutes 30 seconds
- Match 3: 10 minutes
- Match 4: 9 minutes
- Match 5: 3 minutes
- Match 6: 12 minutes
- Match 7: 6 minutes
- Match 8: 10 seconds
- Match 9: 8 minutes
- Match 10: Instant
It’s worth noting that Match 8 came after 30 minutes of Steam downtime; I entered the queue immediately as it opened, with players chomping at the bit to hop in. The point is, the average queue time on Renown is long right now. Too long, in my opinion, stemming from the fact that I never once saw more than 20 people queuing at any one time, yet frequently saw the number below 10. Combine this with Renown trying to match players by rank and accounting for the fact that not everyone is solo-queuing, and you’ve got a perfect cocktail for long wait times that occasionally slip into the realm of the ridiculous.
Several non-existent features simply can’t be added to the match search experience right now. You can’t remove maps from the search (unlike FACEIT), nor can you pay for premium queuing that allows you to avoid four or five-stack lobbies (see FACEIT Super Matches as the blueprint). Renown is in the difficult position where it can’t afford to split the player base with features like these, even if they’d be good further down the line. Right now, though, they’re certainly missed.
In the map veto itself, voting is done by a majority vote, more in line with the Premier system than FACEIT. Three map bans each, then a final map ban with a CT/T-side vote to round things out. It’s a sound system, but the lack of a knife round in favor of a vote is sorely missed. I acknowledge that this is pretty subjective, though.
Less excusable is the lack of a pre-game chat. Vetos can’t be discussed with teammates, so you’re flying blind with every round of voting, unable to justify your reasons to teammates. Tough times.
Let’s end on some positives. Renown’s CS2 lobbies have hidden IPs by default, perfect for streamers playing on the platform. And lastly, should a player not connect after the veto is finished, it’s super quick to get you into another match as a priority.
The Renown CS2 In-Game Experience
The actual in-game experience is where Renown’s CS2 matchmaking shines. Overall, the quality of games is excellent, with very little toxicity as advertised. Despite the growing pains of the platform meaning rank distribution is often messy, teammates were generally supportive of each other, even when one had much better game understanding than another. Perhaps they were motivated by the fact that no communication is a bannable offense on Renown, and toxicity isn’t tolerated in what is still a small community.
In my case, I’m level 8 over on FACEIT, but finding myself in Renown lobbies with 2.3k-2.6k Elo players was not uncommon. Despite the disparity, I never felt that the platform had placed me in matches where I was totally out of my depth, although I’d not necessarily recommend it to a total beginner. Renown’s rigorous invite process should mean beginners are left out of this one for now, regardless.
Throughout my 10 Renown CS2 matches, I’m glad to say I had no server issues of note, with stable ping throughout. No cheaters, either, despite one of my teammates’ adamant assertions to the contrary. I know this because Renown offers easy demo downloads, so I was able to jump in and check for myself. Renown claims to use “VAC + Renown AI,” although it’s not clear how exactly this works. It avoids a kernel-level anti-cheat, which for some is too intrusive. Personally, I prefer kernel-level ACs, but I’m happy to be proven wrong if Renown solves the issue its own way.
Renown CS2 games also use a custom ruleset. Friendly fire is turned on, so if you’re used to knifing your teammate at the start of every round from FACEIT, you’ll be in for a shock here. Overtime is enabled, and features a $12.5k economy. Each team gets two 90-second tech timeouts per game (as well as the standard three 30-second tactical ones), so this ruleset gets a solid thumbs-up from me.
The Renown CS2 Post-Match Experience
Post-match, Renown CS2 players are offered the chance to rate their teammates using one of three emojis: sad, okay, or happy. Your overall rating is then displayed front and center of your profile, which is a fine system in practice. The platform makes it no hassle to rate teammates, although it’s all too easy to fall into the habit of rating them based on their overall performance in the game rather than friendliness or communication. As a result, I’m not sure the current system is perfect.
The demo downloads are good and quick, but I’d argue it’s the bare minimum for any serious CS2 matchmaking platform. At the end of each game, an automatic Play of the Game highlight is generated and left on the match page, which is a nice touch. These are then placed on a publicly visible Highlights page, which features the Play of the Game from every single Renown CS2 match.
Let’s wrap up some final thoughts. I greatly enjoyed my time with Renown. The matches themselves were a joy, and I particularly like the eighth map idea as a unique selling point, but I’m not sure I’d remain a paying customer right now. For me, the extraordinarily long queue times (compared to other services) massively limit the platform’s staying power, and it’s on this alone that I can’t say it will replace FACEIT as my go-to CS2 matchmaking platform. That said, I’ll definitely use the free tier again, even if just to hop into a match when FACEIT isn’t going my way. It’s good, it just needs more players.
