Counter-Strike has had a hacking problem for a long time, and with the launch of CS2, it seems that Valve has decided to kick things up a notch with their upgraded AI live VAC system. With this action against hackers, a popular question in the community is whether Counter-Strike now has a hardware ban.
The short answer is no. You cannot get hardware banned on CS2, at least for now. Keep reading if you want to learn more about hardware bans and CS2.
What is a Hardware Ban?
What exactly is a hardware ban? When you play CS2, your computer connects to Counter-Strike game servers. In the process, your computer sends a bunch of data to the game server, like the movement of your mouse and the buttons you press on your keyboard, and in return, the server sends back some data.
Certain information from the data Valve acquires from your computer is directly linked with your computer’s hardware. You can’t change this information, and Valve will know that it’s the same hardware trying to connect to the game servers, no matter how many different accounts you change.
When someone gets a hardware ban from a video game, the information tied to the hardware of that person’s computer gets blocked from being able to connect to the game servers. In other words, it’s the computer itself that got banned from the game, not the account being used for hacking or any other activity against the gameplay rules.
Benefits and Drawbacks Hardware Bans
Unfortunately, there is one major issue with hardware bans, which is why there aren’t many games out there that implement them. The thing is, gaming hardware doesn’t necessarily stay with the same person forever. Just think about it. How many times have you bought or sold a piece of hardware for your computer, like a GPU or a motherboard?
If someone uses hacks on a video game, gets hardware banned on their computer, and sells the computer to someone else, the person who purchased the PC won’t be able to play the game despite not having anything to do with hacking or cheating. Plus, many people play games on shared computers, which creates an even bigger problem for hardware bans.
However, there is one key benefit of using a hardware ban. Since CS2 is a free-to-play game, hackers can create a new account once they get banned from one and start hacking again. However, if they receive a hardware ban, no matter how many new accounts they create, they won’t be able to connect to the game servers and use cheats.
CS2 and Hardware Bans
As for the current build of the game, CS2 has not implemented any kind of hardware ban system. While there are reports of people getting a hardware ban on CS2, almost all are false reports. If you dig deep, it usually turns out to be something else they are mistaking for a hardware ban.
Fortunately, the live AI VAC ban system is working quite well, with plenty of hackers getting banned in the middle of a match. There is no official report from Valve on whether they will be adding a hardware ban system for CS2, so we can safely assume that we likely won’t see hardware bans being implemented in CS2 anytime soon.
Conclusion
In short, CS2 currently does not have any system that can issue a hardware ban to players who get caught cheating or using hacking software. While it isn’t difficult for them to add a system like that, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see one in CS2 in the near future.
