Counter-Strike 2 VAC Bans Being Reversed After AMD Software Caused False Positives

The 2023 multiplayer tactical first-person shooter game Counter-Strike 2 was created and released by Valve. It is the Counter-Strike series’ sixth major installment. It was revealed on March 22, 2023, and it was launched on September 27, 2023, taking the place of Global Offensive on Steam. It was created as an improved version of the previous primary entry, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012).

Similar to its predecessor, the game features a variety of objective-based game types that pit the Counter-Terrorists and the Terrorists against one another. Major technological upgrades over Global Offensive are included in Counter-Strike 2, including the switch from the Source game engine to Source 2, better visuals, and a new server architecture. Furthermore, a large number of Global Offensive maps were modified to make use of Source 2’s capabilities, while other levels underwent total redesigns.

Similar to other titles in the series, Counter-Strike 2 is a cooperative tactical first-person shooter in which two teams battle to accomplish various goals based on the chosen game mode. The Counter-Terrorists and the Terrorists are the two teams made up of the players. Every game mode consists of many rounds with distinct goals. During the breaks between rounds, the player can buy new weapons and equipment to utilize. The player only has one life every round in the majority of game options, therefore if they die, they won’t be able to continue playing until the round is over.

Players can engage in the following six game modes: Competitive, Premier, Casual, Wingman, Deathmatch, and Hostage. The main game mode, Competitive, pits two teams of five players (5 vs. 5). The terrorists’ objective is to plant a C4 explosive at one of two bomb sites on the map or to kill every Counter-Terrorist, while the counter-terrorists’ objective is to either kill every terrorist or defuse the explosive. The team will win their round and receive a point if they have accomplished their goals. Each game consists of 24 rounds, with the victorious team being the first to reach 13. Premier operates in a similar manner to Competitive, however instead of letting players queue onto whatever map they like, players participate in a voting and banning mechanism for maps in Premier. It also uses a ranking system, but instead of the old one, players are ranked numerically according to how well they perform. There are also now global and regional leaderboards. In the Competitive mode, the former ranking scheme is still in place, but the ranks are now decided for each map individually.

Few Hits, More Misses?

Critics gave Counter-Strike 2 mostly positive reviews when it was first released. The response from players, however, was uneven; they had conflicting feelings about Global Offensive’s delisting from Steam, the game’s decreased performance, and the elimination of a few features. Consequently, Counter-Strike 2 became one of the lowest rated Valve games on Steam after receiving hundreds of unfavorable customer reviews.

Just a few weeks after its debut on Steam, Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 has been beset by problems. AMD, a manufacturer of graphics cards, is the source of one significant new problem. To lower the latency between your hardware and the game, Team Red just included Anti-Lag+ to their lineup of GPUs.

Valve is unbanning Counter-Strike 2 players after an AMD driver upgrade that added Anti-Lag+ began to result in bans in the game. Those that enabled it in Counter-Strike 2 were, however, barred from the game as it was implemented at the driver level without any prior notice from Valve. AMD was forced to remove the functionality completely and disable it by changing the drivers.

Patch Notes About Valve’s Unbanning

According to Valve’s most recent patch notes:

“A startup check for AMD graphics driver incompatibilities was included. We will immediately start lifting the impacted players’ VAC bans.”

One of the players to be unbanned from the game is a trader of CS2 skins; it appears that unintentional bans are being lifted one at a time for individuals who were affected.

Bans on Counter-Strike 2 VAC Were Lifted When AMD Software Generated False Positives

The way that Valve’s VAC bans operate differs from other games. Rather than completely disabling access, VAC protected servers will prevent you from playing. This would depend more on communities and restrict your access to things like official servers and rated games.

Unlike AMD’s approach to the debut of its Anti-Lag+, Nvidia’s Reflex—which accomplishes comparable functions—is supported within the game. To ensure that publishers’ and developers’ software is supported, Nvidia frequently collaborates closely with them.

It appears that AMD approached Valve improperly regarding the significant modification. It seems to make sense that the system started to prohibit people because software updates may allow hackers to access one of Valve’s largest revenue streams.

So, while Valve tries to sort out the bugs that have had the players on an edge, we will keep you updated with any and all updates that come from their end!