Many Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players logged in yesterday and felt a sharp pain. Valve brushed off its GSGO banhammer and dropped it on their heads.
Kotaku posted an article yesterday that detailed how over 11,000 CSGO players were banned by the Valve Anti-Cheat system for cheating. VAC has been banning players continually, but it seems the system is now able to detect previously stealthy cheats. A CSGO subreddit thread includes links that show cheat makers discussing the fact that their once-undetectable cheats are now recognized.
Players who are banned are not only unable to play. Their Steam inventories are frozen, which means they cannot sell or trade CSGO items at all.
Valve has not released a statement about the ban, and Kotaku’s response for comment has not been answered. Veteran gamers speculate that this wave of bans is due to a server-side anticheat known as Untrusted. This system punishes players who do impossible actions during gameplay, usually performed by a hack.
These measures won’t stay successful for long. Some cheat makers have already vowed to find a way to bypass then new VAC checks for CSGO, and cheaters always find a way to adapt to anticheat systems. Action, reaction.