Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) Live has rolled out an update in the latest version of Counter-Strike 2, resulting in a massive ban on legitimate users and causing outrage in the online community. Reports started flooding in on January 22nd, 2026, with users on Premier, Wingman, and other maps in the newly released workshops being VAC-banned in mid-game on Alpine.
The chaos began shortly after the update, which was meant to detect cheaters better, but issued a wrongful ban instead. AEROj, a professional player, was banned for a single Wingman match because Faceit was down, as he tweeted: “30 Mins into update, I got VAC banned. Never cheated in my life.” Map designer g3om (also Timur Aisin) ironically ended up banned for cheating on the very map he made, Alpine, about which he posted on X:
Players bombarded Steam forums and Reddit, terming it “unplayable” as players avoided panic queues. Similar to past glitches, such as AMD Anti-Lag bans, this has scaled bigger, affecting matchmaking and the skin economy. No Valve response has surfaced as of January 22, with thousands left in limbo.
Valve’s CS2 trust hangs in the balance as clean players quit while cheaters get away scot-free. This is a moment requiring a swift rollback to have any sort of reputational salvage in the esports and trading scenes. Though history may prove that false bans auto-reverse, delays actually fuel toxicity. The CS2 community is demanding transparency in this regard to prevent further exodus.