CS2 players demand Valve makes changes to surrender system as rampant cheating takes hold

Valve and Counter-Strike 2 players are losing the fight against cheaters, with players this week turning their ire to the frustrating surrender system as those running into cheaters just want to abandon their matches and jump straight back in the queue.

When it comes to competitive CS2 you should never give up or surrender, but when your opponent in Counter-Strike 2 is blatantly wallhacking or spin-botting and you’ve got no chance to win, many just want the game to end. But, thanks to how the surrender system operates, many are left playing out an extra 10 minutes or more—and players have had enough.

“If my buddies and I are positive we’re playing against a [wallhacker] or spinbotter, why am I locked into playing this game with them?” a player asked in an April 5 Reddit thread, and they weren’t alone. There’s nothing like being held hostage by hackers due to Valve’s surrender system, which requires a team to have a player abandon or disconnect for five minutes before the surrender vote can be issued.

It’s not five minutes of normal time, either: Players have to slog out five active minutes mid-round, where freeze time or match pauses don’t count. The same goes for when players disconnect pre-game, where teams in a four-versus-five often need to wait up to six rounds before they can call a surrender vote.

One player was quick to point out the drawbacks to an instant-surrender system, where deranking to play opponents worse than you or griefing other teammates into lost rating are potential side-effects that would only cause more problems. “It seems like the core issue here is not the unavailability of forfeiting, but anti-cheat,” they said.

They’re not wrong: The strain on the surrender system is just one byproduct of a failing anti-cheat that has seen many players shift to third-party platforms like FACEIT, or outright quit the game until cheating is addressed on a wider scale. An improved anti-cheat was on many players’ and pundits’ minds over the past fortnight during the PGL Copenhagen Major, with the pinnacle event a chance for pros to get in touch with Valve directly to share their concerns.

It was revealed during the latest episode of the Talking Counter podcast with SPUNJ, Moses, and YNk that addressing cheaters was top priority for Valve according to discussions at the Major, so here’s hoping devs have an answer for the hacking epidemic plaguing CS2 today. In turn, an improved anti-cheat will alleviate pressure on other factors like the surrender system so that changes aren’t totally necessary.

Until then, however, we’ll need to put up with the hackers controlling our Premier games a little while longer.