Last week, the CS:GO community was surprised when Valve released an update concerning VAC Bans. It looks like the publisher may have “seen the light” as it announced that those who have been under the ban for more than five years can now join a Valve-sponsored event.
For those wondering what a VAC is, it stands for Valve Anti-Cheat. This is an automated system designed to detect cheats in games. The system typically looks for cheat signatures like third-party modifications that give one player an advantage over another. Once the system determines a player has been cheating, they will be banned. This means they won’t be able to play on VAC-secured servers, which is where most official tournaments happen.
Several games use the VAC system and CS:GO is one of those.
So what exactly happened? As CS:GO is set to start the 2021 Regional Major Rankings, Valve revealed that it decided to go over its event guidelines including the VAC bans.
Valve added that under the guidelines, CS:GO players who received a VAC ban meant no participation in Valve-sponsored events. As it turned out, the guidelines haven’t been updated since the game was launched. While there have been recent VAC bans, there were also those banned for more than eight years.
With this, Valve decided that a VAC ban only disqualifies players from an event if the ban was received:
- Less than 5 years prior
- At any time after they first participated in a Valve-sponsored event
Valve reminded everyone that VAC bans remain in place with all of the other effects. The only difference is how they impact a player’s eligibility to be part of Valve-sponsored events. It means the ban is still in effect but select subjected players now have another shot at the competitive scene.
There are those in the community who say that the case of Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen may have played a role in the decision. Jamppi received a VAC ban all the way back in 2015 when he's 14 years old. He claimed that a friend had used his account and was the one who cheated. That ban cost him a career in the CS:GO pro scene as he wasn’t able to sign with OG.
Others are also saying that while the new ruling is indeed welcome, it may be too little too late for a lot of players. Jamppi, for example, is now part of Team Liquid but as a Valorant player.
What about you? What do you think about Valve’s move?
