Major CS2 hitbox bug discovered as first professional tournament looms

We are just one week away from IEM Sydney—the first tier one pro tournament to feature CS2—and yet another major fault with the game has been identified by the community. This time, it’s player hitboxes that are out of order.

The issue was first discovered on Oct. 7 by CS2 player and Twitter user @Joleksu, who posted a collection of short video clips and screenshots showing a massive inconsistency between the displayed player model on the client and their actual server-based location.

In the main clip, Joleksu fires an M4A4 rifle directly at the head of a crouching bot on Nuke. With console commands, the bot’s actual hitbox is also displayed, and while Joleksu shoots at the bot’s head, the hitbox actually sits further back.

As a result, the game registers the shots as misses despite Joleksu firing directly at the bot’s head on his screen. They also show the same gaps in the model exist on the hands and parts of the model’s leg. The player also shared more images of models in various stances, indicating the issue extends beyond just characters crouching.

A response to the tweet from user @rodi_fps added further fuel to the fire, with hitboxes lagging behind a character’s model after moving. All in all, the discovery during the first foray into pro-CS2 via ESL’s Challenger leagues and not long before IEM Sydney is worrisome, to say the least.

The glitch has reminded players of the state of hitboxes in CS:GO prior to 2015. Then, character model hitboxes weren’t actually bound to the models themselves, instead larger rectangular blocks that oftentimes expanded past the visible model—meaning a slight miss would actually register as a hit. Valve’s September 2015 update remedied this somewhat but now their work has been undone in CS2.

Fortunately, Valve has been active in updating major issues with CS2 since its official release a fortnight ago. From issues with matchmaking Premier rating to minor visual updates, the team behind the scenes has been working non-stop to remedy faults with the title.

However, ESL’s IEM Sydney tournament, set to begin on Oct. 16, has put them on a clock. Here’s hoping Valve manages to fix at least this major fault—because there are plenty more minor issues yet to be addressed.

The clock is ticking.