Valve bans ~1M CS2 bots
Valve says it banned nearly 1 million bots from CS2, crediting player reports for the mass removals — a big integrity move for competitive matchmaking. The crackdown was announced alongside tournament results across esports today. (x.com)
Ido Magal — the Counter‑Strike 2 project lead who posts as ido_valve — confirmed a concrete figure of 960,000 farming‑bot accounts in a public message posted March 27, 2026. (techpowerup.com) Valve’s enforcement used VAC (Valve Anti‑Cheat) in a single large wave that targeted accounts primarily active in non‑competitive modes such as Deathmatch, Arms Race and Casual. (techpowerup.com) Public ban trackers like csstats.gg showed only a few thousand visible suspensions during the same window because many farming accounts had no ranked/competitive history, producing a large gap between public data and Valve’s internal count. (dust2.in) Magal invited players to keep reporting suspected farming bots via csgoteamfeedback@valvesoftware.com with the subject “Farming Bot Report,” signaling ongoing enforcement rather than a one‑off action. (techpowerup.com) Coverage across gaming outlets called the operation one of the biggest single‑day VAC waves in Valve’s recent history, while community posts and follow‑up reports noted operators can recreate “burner” accounts and some players still reported bot encounters after the purge. (strafe.com)
