Valve is finally ramping up the battle against cheaters in CS2 with the game’s latest update, rolling out a brand new VACNet Labeling Portal to detect cheaters more accurately and consistently.
While the issue of cheating has long been a major cause of concern in the Counter-Strike community, the problem reached an all-time high recently with reports of cheaters plaguing Premier games running rampant, especially towards the higher elos. Fortunately, Valve has finally decided to step in, bringing a brand-new system to train its anti-cheat and issue bans on bad actors in an efficient fashion.
The VACNet Labeling Portal, added to CS2 in a small 42 MB update earlier today, is an Overwatch-style system used to train the game’s anti-cheat. Invites to the system are extremely limited, but players who do get access can review three-minute clips of suspected cheaters and label specific behaviors like aim assistance, wallhacks, or bot farming.
How to Get Access to VACNet Labeling Portal in CS2
Access to the VACNet Labeling Portal in CS2 is currently limited to an invite-only basis. Valve has sent out invites to a select number of players, who can log into the official VACNet website to review clips of suspected cheaters.
Upon receiving an invite, you’ll be able to see the VACNet logo towards the top-left of your main menu when launching CS2. You can then opt into the program and use the aforementioned website to start reviewing clips.
Valve has also urged players not to stream, record, or share videos of the clips they review to prevent cheaters from identifying ways to better hide their cheats.
Unlike the Overwatch system from CS:GO, verdicts submitted through the VACNet Labeling Portal don’t directly affect the suspected cheater. Instead, the data is used to train future VACNet models.
Needless to say, the CS2 community is welcoming Valve’s efforts to combat the game’s ever-growing cheating problem, hoping the improved VACNet models will be enough to curb it without resorting to kernel-level anti-cheat on players’ PCs.
