Valve bans keyboard automation in Counter-Strike 2

Shawn Knight

Shawn Knight

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Bottom line: Valve has weighed in on a set of controversial keyboard features that some believe enabled an unfair advantage, and one of the companies impacted by the decision has chimed in on the matter.

For those not up to speed, Razer caused a bit of a stir in the competitive gaming community when it added support for a feature called Snap Tap to its Huntsman V3 Pro keyboards. The tech more or less eliminated input lag when switching between opposite directions in games like Counter-Strike 2, leading to movement that is otherwise impossible.

Wooting, a rival keyboard maker, didn't like the idea from the start but eventually rolled out a similar feature in order to collect feedback from users. Now, Valve has issued its official stance on the issue.

The developer and publisher said it is drawing a clear line on what is and isn't acceptable in Counter-Strike. Moving forward, automation (either via scripting or hardware) that skirts "core skills" like coordination and reaction time is no longer allowed.

Anyone suspected of "automating multiple player actions from a single game input" on official Valve servers will now be removed from their match, we're told. The Verge's Tom Warren tried using simultaneous opposing cardinal directions (SOCD) after the update on a Valve server, and was indeed booted from the session. Notably, there doesn't seem to be an account ban associated with an infraction (at least, right now) – you just get kicked from the match.

Valve added that in-game binds that include more than one movement /attack actions will no longer work in order to prevent accidental infractions.

Over on X, Wooting said they are glad Valve has taken a stance against Snap Tap, and encouraged gamers not to use Snappy Tappy or Rappy Snappy in Counter-Strike 2.

With Counter-Strike 2 now off the table, it may only be a matter of time before other games also ban use of the feature. Now, if we could just do something about bots and more traditional cheat software.

Image credit: John Petalcurin

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Valve bans keyboard automation in Counter-Strike 2

 
Better to change the behavior of the game itself to only behave in ways the developers deem acceptable, than try to play a game of arbitrary whackamole. It's possible but difficult to do consistently on other keyboards, so implement a mechanic that prevents it from happening consistently regardless of input. Any sort of punitive action will only generate false positives, and not prevent players from optimizing around your action.
 
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I saw videos showing how it helps a player. It is a decent aid. I see it working if all the people could use it which they obviously wont because they do not have the same brand keyboards.
 
Kotters said:
Better to change the behavior of the game itself to only behave in ways the developers deem acceptable, than try to play a game of arbitrary whackamole. It's possible but difficult to do consistently on other keyboards, so implement a mechanic that prevents it from happening consistently regardless of input. Any sort of punitive action will only generate false positives, and not prevent players from optimizing around your action.
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you can do it the same on pretty much any keyboard (unless you have a 20yo keyboard on your desk). the difference is in automation, that's something few do.

you don't seem to advocate for "automation" for mouse clicks when there the hardware makes a much bigger difference :)
 
If I remember correctly, the issue is that these games dont register the next key press before the previous button is released. These keyboards can now fake the key release as soon as next key is pressed.

They could just change the game code so that all keyboards behave the same, no key_up required.
 
They should've left it. It was helpful, but in a sense that it removed a bottleneck, we don't want those.
 
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