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How to have a better experience in CS2

Posted by: SlayeR Oct 20 2023, 02:55 AM

Why do WE even need this guide?
We need this guide, because many of us have a negative experience with this game. This is sad because this game has SO much potential. The negative experiences is of course, tied to the official matchmaking system. Not just the matchmaking system but the countless broken systems that come with it. But first we're going to learn what makes the CS2 experience negative (skip this section if you already know!).

Note: If you already know the broken systems, skip to the next section where you'll learn how to have a good experience with this game again!

The broken systems tied to the official matchmaking system is the following:



What is broken about the systems tied to the official matchmaking system?
VAC: VAC The problem with VAC is that if it detects a player is cheating, it will have a delayed ban applied to the player, which can be anywhere from a week to about 6 months. On the other hand, it hardly detects actual cheats.

VACLive: The problem with VACLive is that it is an AI-anticheat that has completely replaced Overwatch, which made a player investigate another player "The Suspect" to see if that person is griefing or cheating. VACLive has learned about how players cheat, but the thing is, it only really bans spinbotters, because that is too obvious and easy to see. It will also detect you if you stare at people to much through walls with almost perfect tracking (CONSISTENTLY!). It has a much harder time noticing semi-rage cheats, where as the human eye would probably be better for telling if someone is cheating.

Trust Factor Score System: The problem with trust factor is that your score can become worse because of things that are out of your control. Yes it's mostly based on your behavior and if you are toxic. But things that can reduce your trust factor is by getting reported by salty players (even if you didn't do anything!).

The report feature: Now what is wrong with a feature such as the reporting system? The problem is that it is INSANELY ABUSABLE and reporting for cheating does not help. However it reporting for "Griefing" and "Abusive communications or profile" and it is insanely stupid. If you do well, salty players can report you for both of these things.

About 6 reports from the enemy team in 2 matches is enough to give a warning (for griefing and communication), and if you get that again it will lead to mute (for communication report) and cooldowns from atleast 30 minutes up to 14 days if you get reported for griefing. There is ABSOLUTELY no one who is going to check if you are actually griefing or if you are toxic. An automated system like this, is so abusable it's not even funny. Imagine getting a permanent mute even though you might never have touched text-chat or voice-chat. That's pretty stupid, right?

Rank/Rating system: The stupid thing about this one, is that it is extremely inaccurate considering the amounts of cheaters you are probably already facing, dragging you lower and lower in rank/rating. It's basically the result of the mentioned systems above, and because the system can make you play against players with both a lower and/or higher rating (not that I experinced it, but it is well-known in CS2, even after the "fix").

What have we learned in this section?
In this section, we have learned that the countless systems that are supposed to give us a better experience in CS2 are either not working or they are abusable to the point where it makes you have a worse experience.
How to play CS2 with a good experience?
The answer to "How to play CS2 while still having a good experience" is quite simple: FaceIt.

Make an account for FaceIt and connect with your Steam Account, invite your friends to FaceIt and queue together in a matchmaking system where players are higher skilled and there are almost no cheaters. FaceIt does not depend on your Trust Factor score and you can't receive griefing cooldowns from false griefing reports on FaceIt servers. Only thing that might still be an issue is getting falsely reported for abusive communications or profile that will give you mute in-game. Their own report system is better and it is not entirely automated in a way it will give penalties for something that has 0 evidence.

And the BEST part is... Most cheaters are stopped before they even get to play on FaceIt! That's right! Because FaceIt also has their own anti-cheat which will ban instantly and detects even more cheats than VAC ever has.

When you get and play FaceIt, you now meet and experience a much better CS2. Gone are the days of getting false grieifing cooldowns, gone are the days of having trust factor score affecting your match experience because of false reports, gone are the day of playing against cheaters, and most importantly... GONE ARE THE DAYS OF RELYING ON AN ANTI-CHEAT THAT IS SLOWER THAN INTERNET EXPLORER! (maybe a bit overexaggerated here, but you probably get the point).

But how do I earn XP?
Getting xp for your CS account is probably a bit hard/impossible to do on FaceIt. If you care about getting xp for service-medals or your weekly drops, then I have the solution for you. Because FaceIt is pretty much only competitive, you can earn xp in Deathmatch or Casual (with official matchmaking). These modes can be used as a warmup or for when you want to not play too seriously.

You don't get as many cheaters in deathmatch or casual as you would in Premier, Competitive and Wingman, but it should be doable because you aren't forced to stay in a match for 10 to 90 minutes in those modes. You can simply leave and try finding another match.
Is that really it?
Yes my friends, that is really it. This is the best way to have a good experience with the game as of now. Until Valve actually decides to listen to the community and fix their abusable systems and most importantly, their Anti-Cheat system, this is the only way to enjoy the game for what it is.