This Steam trick lets you pop a GIF when getting kicked in CS2

Changes made to Steam’s profile customization allowed players to use animated avatars and gifs as their profile pictures, but now it seems you can also embed GIFs when faced with a votekick in CS2. A player discovered that tinkering with nicknames can actually import GIF images into the game.

CS2 player WAXPEER on X (formerly Twitter) uploaded a video on Dec. 11 showing a GIF of CS pro s1mple playing inside the votekick box. “Apparently, you can now embed any image (or GIF) in your Steam nickname, and it’ll show up in the CS2 kick voting menu,” the user said, adding that the player in question used a GIF as their nickname, which was promptly detected and displayed by CS2.

We can also see parts of an HTML embed contained in the name of the user who initiated the vote, implying that CS2, or at least its votekick function, utilizes HTML or similar and thus allows the GIF to be imported. The implications of such a mechanic given to the infamous CS community could be hilarious. It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing GIFs and images, most of them likely inappropriate, showing up in matches left and right. That is unless Valve removes the function and starts selling custom vote GIFs instead.

This situation reminds me of the Counter-Strike of yore, where every player had a myriad of different custom sprays that they would plop down wherever they went. Some servers even removed spray cooldowns, allowing people to paint entire maps in their custom spray of choice. The only prevalent Valve game with that level of custom content is Team Fortress 2, though it is often used to bully streamers. Though it’s somewhat limited, it’s nostalgic to see the return of custom imagery in CS, but it’s highly probable that Valve will remove it once they figure it out.