CS2 pundit provides insight into bot farm operations in China

Russian Counter-Strike 2 pundit and insider Gabe Follower has released a series of X posts providing a first-hand look into the operations of a Chinese bot farm in Valve's FPS. The post which provides leaked videos and photos from a Chinese bot farm alongside screenshots from an alleged bot farm's Discord looks to shed light on groups attempting to profit from the mass cultivation and sale of in-game items.

According to the series of posts, bot farms active in CS2 attempt to run as many instances of the game as possible while idling for drops and weekly rewards in the game. While these drops are individually only usually a couple of cents, Gabe Followers stated that an example of one farm was able to generate upwards of $600k in a month, an "impressive" return on investment for the cost of setting up a farm.

Overall the practice is highly damaging to players' experience with Counter-Strike 2, as these bots will often monopolize servers and kick any real players while wasting server capacity. Additionally, the presence of bots in-game even if they don't immediately kick all other players can ruin the competitive balance or fun of a game.

Fortunately, Valve is seemingly actively trying to stamp down on bot farms and boosting in the game, with the rate of VAC bans handed out to alleged bot accounts increasing in the past two weeks. According to stats aggregator account CS Stats and commentated on by white hat hacker/security researcher killa, the recent uptick in bans is directly tied to a ban wave by Valve against popular bot farm providers.

This ban wave is something alluded to in Gabe Follower's original post, which shows a number of accounts being taken down by VAC bans.