Valve made a bold decision in the latest Counter-Strike 2 update that is something of a U-turn on previous stances. The client update announced that certain forms of scripting common in Counter-Strike will now be detected and blocked, essentially putting an end to the automated commands that some players exploit for things like jumping grenades and counter-striking. Yes, sir, tears are delicious.
A lot of Counter-Striker players probably don’t even realize that these tactics exist, but keyboard macros of various types have been around forever. In fact, Valve’s previous stance was to allow them. However, state-of-the-art hardware is increasingly leaning toward allowing something called Simultaneous Opposite Cardinal Direction (SOCD) input, a name so catchy that hardware manufacturer Razer dubbed it “Snap Tap,” and it’s become the subject of stern controversy across competitive gaming.
Here is a full explanation of how SOCD/Snap Tap worksspecifically how it relates to counter-strafing in competitive Counter-Strike and why it can be problematic. In tiny, though, it makes a fundamental skill of the game (stopping to shoot accurately while moving) trivially uncomplicated to do.
So Valve came out and said this shit won’t fly anymore. As someone who normally plays this game, I’m all for banning auto-assists, and the highest upvoted comment on the CS2 subreddit goes in a similar direction. “Valve has taken a stance” TheZeroStone says“The end of tool-assisted gameplay, as someone who doesn’t use any keyboard shortcuts and relies on its natural inconsistencies, I’m happy.”
Here’s Valve’s official statement: “Certain types of movement/shooting automation, such as hardware-assisted counter-attacks, will now be detected on official Valve servers and will result in kicking from the match.” It went on to list certain input bindings that will now be ignored by default, and for good measure added that grunting when jumping and throwing “may now be audible to other players nearby.”
One thing I’ll note is that the type of grenade throws we’re talking about here are pretty high-level. For example, from the Terrorist spawn point on Mirage, you can throw a smoke grenade into the window in the middle that the Counter-Terrorist usually occupies, completely blocking their line of sight and allowing the T-side to push at the start of the round. You can still pull off this throw. But it’s tricky, and you won’t be able to do it without practice: unlike pressing a single button on the fresh Razer keyboard.
And now you understand this meme:
window players after the fresh update look like this With r/cs2
In addition to the game notes about this change, Valve has published a longer blog post explaining its decision.
“Counter-Strike is constantly evolving” Valve writes“From art to maps to gameplay ideas and even player input, the CS community shapes the game.
“Scripting and automating player commands has always been a contentious topic, but over the years, some forms of scripting (e.g. jump shots) have gained acceptance because they enable plays that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. In fact, jump shots have become such an important part of the game that we’ve done the work to make them reliable without any special scripts or bindings (e.g. by jumping and quickly throwing a grenade).
“Developing coordination and reaction time has always been key to mastering Counter-Strike. Recently, some hardware features have blurred the line between manual input and automation, so we decided to clearly define what is and is not acceptable in Counter-Strike.
“We will no longer allow automation (via scripting or hardware) that bypasses these core skills, and in the future (and initially only on official Valve servers) players suspected of automating multiple player actions from a single game command may be kicked from the match.”
He adds that if you have a keyboard with a “Snap Tap” feature, you might want to disable it before playing Counter-Strike 2 again, or your ass is grass and Gabe will bring a lawnmower. Those may not be the exact words, but you get the idea.
As if all of this wasn’t exciting enough, Valve ends by briefly addressing the #1 complaint on every Counter-Strike forum in Counter-Strike history: cheating. This is a bit of a sore subject, as Valve is constantly cracking down on cheaters and scammers through Valve Anti-Cheat, as well as regularly issuing large ban waves, but it’s a never-ending battle, and a segment of the player base feels that Valve does nothing or doesn’t care.
The truth is that Valve is fighting a war without end, and one it can’t talk about. It can never describe in detail what it’s doing to combat cheaters beyond the broadest and vaguest terms, because even the slightest hint of what it’s up to is a potential gift to cheaters. Nevertheless, get ready for a few magic words:
“Initial testing of VacNet 3.0 has begun on a limited number of matches.”
VAC 3.0 is here and is being tested before being released to the general public. What exactly makes this version of VAC worthy of the 3.0 designation? I doubt anyone outside of a certain Seattle office building will ever find out, but what we do know about VAC 3.0 is that it is capable of responding to player complaints in real time and making near-instantaneous decisions to kick players and cancel matches.
Whether this will seriously damage the army of cheaters remains to be seen, but hey. At least now if someone outbids you, you know for sure it wasn’t Snap Tap.
