moses: "I got the distinct impression that the Anti-Cheat is [Valve's] #1 priority"

It is a problem that continues to plague Counter-Strike, but has seemingly become even more of an issue ever since the release of Counter-Strike 2. Cheating is creating an unsustainable, unwelcoming, and downright unpleasant environment for it's online matchmaking service.

Fans have been crying out for the developer to do more with Valve's Anti-Cheat (VAC) and now it appears that the developer has listened.

In a recent TalkingCounter podcast episode with Jason "moses" O'Toole, Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill, and Janko "YNk" Paunović, the three spoke briefly about their conversations with Counter-Strike 2's developers while at the Major.

moses recalls one of the conversations: "I got the distinct impression that the Anti-Cheat is their number one priority," to which SPUNJ chimed in, "That's also the impression I got." However, moses explained that he "can't go deeper than that" considering the sensitive nature of the Anti-cheat.

Cheating within CS2 hasn't just affected the lowly casual player, but even prompted benched Ukrainian superstar Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev to cry out to the developers earlier this week. "You need to understand @CounterStrike that without proper anticheat - Permier fucking sucks" s1mple posted on April 1st.

Time will tell to see how Valve will be able to further improve their VAC system, but fans can take solace in the fact that the developer has recognized the issue and is seemingly making it a priority for now.