A source: https://www.tiktok.com/@thescoreesports/video/7333677422824443142

If you go into your match history or any counterstrike community you will see lots and lots of banned CS2 players. It seems the latest ban wave has some sort of mistake and lots of innocent players are involved. I am personally not banned but a few of my friends who were definitely not cheating were banned.

It also seems that playing a game right now has decent odds of banning you mid-game. There's lots of footage of this happening during mundane gunfights.

With the scale of this, there's no way they don't reverse most, if not all, bans in this wave. There's simply no way that this many players were actually cheating.

Just putting something here in case someone who avoids other social media wants to know what's going on.

This video draws a comparison on how the toxicity in CS2 is related to Premier mode and the suppression of alternative, non-competitive game modes.

3kliksphilip (with help from Nvidia) dives into latency testing both in CS2 specifically and in games more generally.

We had the opportunity to speak to the CS2 development team at Valve to ask about the past, present, and future of one of the greatest PC games ever made..

Use this method if your microphone doesn't pick up your voice while talking normally in CS2(Counter-Strike 2).

CS2's and CS:GO's muzzle flash is shown on the next tick of the client.

This is just a quick and dirty video on Recoil Control with the AK47 in Counter-Strike 2.

The sensitivity of the microphone in CS2 is really bad. Unless you yell at the mic, it will not pick up what you said. This has gotten me into arguments with my teammates, because they thought I was ignoring their calls.

I got access to the beta yesterday like a lot of other people and I was surprised to find that the game ran horribly on my PC. The FPS numbers are a bit lower than I would expect at an average of 90 but the actual dips are horrendous and it hangs for seconds at a time making it pretty much unenjoyable.

Specs: Ryzen 2600 with moderate overclock. RX 6700 XT, 16GB dual channel RAM at 3000MHz, 1440p resolution.

Monitoring utilization during a deathmatch game shows that nothing is exceeding 50% util (CPU, GPU, RAM or VRAM usage) at 2560x1440 no super resolution on medium-high settings. CPU util is roughly 35-40% most of the time which seems to be the main issue. Lowering graphical settings or resolution doesn't impact FPS noticeably. CSGO and other games run as expected.

It's kinda behaving as if multicore is disabled but from what I could find that's not a setting in CS2 and it should be always enabled. Anyone encounter similar issues? I know the Ryzen 2600 is a little old but benchmarks show comparable CPUs closer to 200 FPS.

Edit: Found something that helped with the hangs/stuttering. FPS is still not great but at least the game is playable now. Find cs2.exe under the default install path of C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\bin\win64 -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Disable Full Screen Optimizations

I made this when the Limited Test had just released, and I feel like it is relevant to post now, given that many people have issues with the recoil.

Counter-Strike 2 will give players a rank for each individual map. Players will also receive a single rank based on the Premiere mode (pick-and-ban maps for each match).

TL, DR:

• Existing ranking system is now on a per-map basis
• A new ranking system, called CS Rating, will be used for premier mode, with global and regional leaderboards
• Inferno has been added to the CS2 limited test
• CS2 invites will now go out to "as many eligible players as possible". To be eligible means that you have an active matchmaking rank, have prime status, and be in a region where the test is available.
• MR12 is now officially implemented in competitive play.

Full release notes:

[ PREMIER ]

• Added Premier mode
• Added a visible CS Rating and CS2 Leaderboards. For more information visit the CS2 Leaderboard FAQ
• Added CSTV for spectating Premier matches

[ SOUND ]

• Fixed a case where grenade throw sounds would play twice
• Added music preview button to music volume sliders
• Various adjustments to sound effects

[ WORKSHOP TOOLS ]

• Added Paint Kit enhancements to CS2 Item Editor. Paint Kit finishes can now support:
• Enabling custom normal maps and AO for all styles
• Optional pearlescent mask
• Optional standard PBR roughness texture
• Custom Paint-By-Numbers masks (enabling Paint-By-Number masks for Spray-Paint style)

[ MAPS ]

• Added Inferno to all available game modes
• Various bug fixes and tweaks for all shipped maps

[ MISC ]

• Fixed a bug with hostage rescue prediction
• Enabled first-person shadow for carried hostages
• Fixed water effects showing in the wrong place when a bullet hit the water after penetration
• Various fixes for weapon finishes
• Replaced "Secondary Fire Hold" setting with "Zoom Button Hold"
• Fixed "Disable all voice comms" button in scoreboard
• "Temporarily Disable Incoming Chat" now mutes voice chat
• Various CS:GO settings will be imported when launching the CS2 Limited Test
• Fixed a case of inconsistent crouching with Duck Mode: Toggle enabled
• Updated the invulnerability visual effect
• Adjusted 'sv_infinite_ammo 2' grenade behavior to match CS:GO
• Desert Eagle third-person muzzle flash smoke now dissipates faster
• Continued iterating on smoke shape
• Adjusted Competitive mode match length to 12-round halves

[ CS:GO ]

• Recent ranked matches in "Your Matches" menu will now show Competitive, Wingman, and Premier matches

[ GAME AUTHENTICATION CODES ]

• Access to match history granted to third-party websites will now cover Competitive, Wingman, and Premier matches
• GetNextMatchSharingCode API used by third-party websites must now supply a match sharing code that is no more than 1 month old to obtain the next match sharing code.

And another one from Puffin, Rigman and Medic! This time it's a USP-S skin that was initially showing a canine skull. However, in the process of making it, they decided to have it show a human face instead (China still doesn't like skulls on its skins after all).

A great skin if you ask me, especially in mega battle-scarred condition.

[ MAPS ]

• All maps previously shipped in the Limited Test are available in casual and deathmatch matchmaking
• All maps and game modes previously shipped in the Limited Test are available for offline play

[ GAMEPLAY ]

• Dropped bombs no longer sink in water
• Reworked the bullet penetration system
• Enabled bot takeover where applicable

According to Aquaismissing's comb through the update, valve are rethinking the competitive and Premier modes. Here's the tweet text if you can't see it:

Subtle, but significant Matchmaking changes in the latest Counter-Strike 2 update:

• From now on Competitive is first to 13 rounds (including Premier)
• Seems like the devs are getting rid of Short Competitive
• Premier matches will have 20s freezetimes, 1 overtime (the game ends as tie, if you tie the OT) and four 30s timeouts

If these changes are here to stay, I think it would be safe to assume, that esports is going to adapt MR12 as well?

Thoughts?

If this is a response to games getting longer and longer in the pro side, I feel it's not the most subtle way to do it. Also it would have to come alongside changes to the economy, which is what made the matches longer in the first place.

Also, having an OT is nice, but it just brings you back to the 30 rounds of before. You'll still be able to finish 15:15 just as you do now but it'll feel different

[ GAMEPLAY ]

• Competitive and Private Matchmaking are currently disabled in the Limited Test
• Minor adjustments to smoke cloud shape

[ MAPS ]

• Added Italy to Deathmatch and Casual game modes
• Removed Anubis and Ancient

[ ECONOMY ]

• Unified StatTrak position on both CS2 M4 models to not occlude stickers
• Adjusted sticker sizes on CS2 M4A4 so they no longer overlap

[ MISC ]

• Updated hostage models

[ SOUND ]

• Audio mix tweaks and adjustments

[ WORKSHOP TOOLS ]

• Added support for multiple team introduction variants