Following Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev’s unspectacular debut for BC.Game, the Ukrainian CSGOAT was quoted as saying, “The anti-cheat is tough, the game froze 10 times… now we know what online gaming is all about.”
The remark was supposedly made after BC.Game’s victory over CYBERSHOKE, which saw s1mple return to competition. The Ukrainian AWPer recorded an average 1.01 HLTV-rated performance in the 2-1 victory in his debut for BC.Game.
One wonders whether the reality of Tier 3 may be setting in, with anti-cheat issues being only the tip of the iceberg in terms of “what online gaming is all about.”
The dry statement brought to new attention anti-cheat performance issues, with s1mple’s quote spreading on social media into the Tier 1 fanbase, who rarely come across such issues.
Anti-cheat and Tier 2/3 Counter-Strike
While it might be new to Tier 1 fans, the anti-cheat performance issue is nothing new, generally. Everyone who has followed Tier 2 or 3 CS in recent years has heard the complaint, commonly about Akros anti-cheat, a kernel-level anti-cheat software that monitors systems for improper software use in games.
As the system is more invasive than other Counter-Strike anti-cheats, it has led to frequent performance complaints from players, who have attributed low FPS to the software.
Additionally, players have been left unable to connect to the service due to technical reasons, or allegedly falsely flagged as a cheater by the software. One such instance recently saw G2’s academy team playing with their Head Coach against Smooya’s fish123 due to the software banning Klimentii ‘kl1m’ Krivosheev.
G2 CS2 manager Petar ‘peca’ Marković took to Twitter/X following the incident stating, “Having a match decided by a failed anticheat system is not acceptable,” adding, “We deal with cheaters slipping through daily in online events and matchmaking, but falsely banning young talents during one of their rare chances to prove themselves is a disgrace.”
The issue was later resolved, with Peca tweeting “Justice is served” after G2 Ares’ victory in the final over esports betting sites favourites, fish123, which saw jL make his brief competitive return only to lose to G2’s academy team.
Cheating in Counter-Strike Tier 2/3
The issue is not an isolated one, and peca’s insistence on the prevalence of cheaters is not isolated to him either. There is little trust at Tier 2 and 3 that the systems which do exist for online play are working. Only recently, members of ENCE accused M1 and ROSY of integrity issues. M1 later signed with the British organisation, Reason Gaming.
Now ENCE igl, and s1mple’s former teammate at NaVi, Viktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev recently tweeted, “Playing against cheaters every second game is my favourite part of pro cs on Tier2-3 right now. Very good to get your mental to unbreakable levels, would recommend 10/10.”
The Ukrainian now faces a situation where he has to fight back to Tier 1 by overcoming those odds, where alleged cheaters get few consequences, and the software intended to prevent them may be an impediment to system and in-game performance.
With s1mple re-entering Counter-Strike, very few questioned his ability. Instead, they questioned his determination, his determination to grind the lower levels and improve and get back to his best. Now the full reality of that will be setting in, but if he can return to the s1mple we know, it will only be all the more impressive.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
