Valve says 'we've decided to draw a clear line' and bans Snap Tap keyboard automation from Counter-Strike 2

Valve has made a bold decision with its latest update to Counter-Strike 2, and one that is something of an about-turn on previous attitudes. A client update has announced certain forms of scripting popular in Counter-Strike will now be detected and banned, essentially putting an end to automated inputs that some players use for actions such as jump-throws of grenades and counter-strafing. Yes sir, the tears are delicious.

A good chunk of Counter-Strikers probably don't even realise such tactics existed, but keyboard macros of various types have been around in the game forever. In fact Valve's previous stance was to allow them. But contemporary hardware has increasingly leaned-in to allowing what's called Simultaneous Opposite Cardinal Direction (SOCD) inputs, a name so catchy that hardware manufacturer Razer has dubbed the feature "Snap Tap", and it's been a major controversy across all competitive games.

Here is a full explainer of how SOCD / Snap Tap works, particularly how it relates to counter-strafing in competitive Counter-Strike, and why that might be a problem. The short version, however, is that it makes a core skill of the game (stopping to shoot accurately while moving) trivially easy to execute.

So Valve has come out hard, and said this shit is no longer going to fly. As someone who plays the game normally I'm all in favour of automated assists being banned, and the top-voted comment on the CS2 subreddit goes along similar lines. "Valve has taken a standpoint," says TheZeroStone. "The end of tool assisted gameplay, as someone who doesn’t use any keybinds and have been relying on my natural inconsistencies, I am happy."

Here's the official word from Valve: "Certain types of movement/shooting input automation such as hardware-assisted counter strafing will now be detected on Valve official servers, resulting in a kick from the match." It goes on to list certain input binds that will now be ignored by default, and for good measure adds that the grunt when you jump and throw "can now be heard by other players nearby."

One thing I will note is that the kind of grenade throws this is talking about are pretty high-level. From the Terrorist spawn on Mirage, for example, you can toss a smoke grenade into the window on mid typically occupied by a Counter-Terrorist, completely obscuring their vision and allowing the T side to push at round start. You can still execute that throw. But it's tough, and you're not going to be able to do it without practice: as opposed to pressing one button on your new Razer keyboard. 

And now you understand this meme:

window players after new update be like from r/cs2

As well as the in-game notes on the change, Valve has published a longer blog post about its decision.

"Counter-Strike is constantly evolving," writes Valve. "From art, to maps, to inventive plays, and even player input, the CS community shapes the game.

"Scripting and automating player commands has always been contentious, but over the years some forms of scripting (e.g., jump-throws) have gained acceptance, as they enable plays that wouldn't otherwise be possible. In fact, jump-throws became such an important part of the game that we've done the work to make them reliable without any special scripting or binds (i.e., by jumping and quickly throwing a grenade).

"Developing one's coordination and reaction time has always been key to mastering Counter-Strike. Recently, some hardware features have blurred the line between manual input and automation, so we've decided to draw a clear line on what is or isn't acceptable in Counter-Strike.

"We are no longer going to allow automation (via scripting or hardware) that circumvent these core skills and, moving forward, (and initially--exclusively on Valve Official Servers) players suspected of automating multiple player actions from a single game input may be kicked from their match."

It adds that if you have a keyboard with "Snap Tap" functionality then you'd best disable that feature before playing Counter-Strike 2 again, or your ass is grass and Gabe's bringing the lawnmower. Maybe not those exact words, but you get the picture.

As if all of this wasn't exciting enough, Valve ends by briefly addressing the #1 complaint on every Counter-Strike forum ever in the history of Counter-Strike: cheating. This is a bit of a tricky topic, because Valve through Valve Anti-Cheat is constantly battling cheaters and cheat-makers, and regularly executes large ban waves, but it's a never-ending battle and elements of the playerbase think that Valve does nothing or doesn't care.

The truth is Valve is fighting a war with no end, and one it can't talk about. It can never detail what it's doing to combat cheaters, except in the broadest and vaguest terms, because even the tiniest hint about what it's up to is a potential gift to the cheat-makers. Nevertheless, prepare yourself for some magic words:

"Initial testing of VacNet 3.0 has begun on a limited set of matches."

VAC 3.0 is here, and it's being tested out before being rolled-out to the entire community. What exactly makes this iteration of VAC worthy of that 3.0 designation? I doubt anyone outside of a certain Seattle office building will ever know, but what we do know about VAC 3.0 is it's capable of responding in realtime to player complaints, and making near-instantaneous decisions about kicking players and cancelling matches.

Whether it makes a serious dent in the cheating army remains to be seen, but hey. At least now when someone outshoots you, you know for sure it wasn't Snap Tap.