Counter-Strike 2’s Anti-Cheat Will Reportedly Be Able To Immediately Cancel Matches

Valve made waves in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community when it announced Counter-Strike 2 earlier this week, especially when the studio revealed that it was going to replace the original game like what Blizzard did with Overwatch.

Counter-Strike 2 will essentially be an upgraded and prettier version of CS:GO thanks to the new Source 2 engine with better-looking maps and more realistic smoke physics, but with the same gameplay and mechanics we’ve come to expect from the team-based first-person shooter. Another very welcome upgrade will reportedly be a new anti-cheat measure that will help stop cheaters and hackers before they get the chance to wreak havoc on everyone else.

Currently, the Valve Anti-Cheat software (VAC) punishes detected or reported cheaters once the match is over, forcing you to play out the entire match for the next 30 or so minutes since you’ll be punished if you leave. Datamined info from the ongoing closed beta test, however, points to a new feature called VAC Live that will presumably be able to cancel an ongoing match when a cheater is detected.

“This match has been cancelled by VAC Live,” reads the datamined code.

Counter-Strike’s direct competitor, Valorant, has had the same feature from day one courtesy of Riot Games’ in-house Vanguard anti-cheat system. Like Vanguard, VAC Live probably won’t be able to catch more discreet cheaters on the fly but it’s good to know that you’ll no longer be forced to stay in a match with a blatant cheater in your midst.

Counter-Strike 2 is expected to launch sometime this summer and is currently in limited closed beta testing. Eligible testers will be selected based on their Steam account standing and recent playtime and will be invited to the playtest automatically through the CS:GO main menu.

The beta test apparently isn’t covered by an NDA so you can check out various footage from the playtest if you haven’t received an invite yourself. Personally, I’m not a fan of the new lighting and textures (although they look like they’re still works-in-progress) but the basic gameplay and mechanics seem to have remained largely intact.