Former CS:GO pro turned mega-popular Valorant streamer, Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, was left dumbfounded after going back to his roots to try out Counter-Strike 2 – where he instantly fell victim to one of the game’s many cheaters.
CS2’s rocky launch has been so for many reasons, but one of the most serious is the prevalence of cheaters – who at least at higher ranks are said to be far too common.
tarik hasn’t dabbled much in CS2, with his main focus being Valorant primarily, but as a Major winner in CS:GO, there is still a large portion of his fanbase who know him from his Counter-Strike days.
However, his return to CS was not what he would have hoped, as a cheater using some form of aimbot and wallhack – in a warmup deathmatch lobby no less – made the experience no fun at all.
Hackers spoil tarik’s first game back in CS2
Not even in a competitive match, tarik obviously wanted to warm up his aim a bit and get used to CS2’s mechanics first, so he hopped in a deathmatch server.
Although it was a custom warmup server, as opposed to Valve’s own deathmatch matchmaking, the server was still VAC secured – which, in theory, should prevent cheaters from playing.
Clearly, this wasn’t the case though, as soon as he spawned in, tarik was being instantly headshotted through walls and from across the map.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Welcome back to CS2,@tarik! pic.twitter.com/P0ARCxvdZK
— Unfortunate Counter-Strike Moments (@CSunfortunate) December 26, 2023
After being shared on social media, people were hardly surprised at the presence of a cheater in a CS2 match.
“If I can get every dollar for every cheat [that] exists on cs2, I will be rich enough to hire some company to make new anticheat for valve,” one commenter joked.
Another player commented, “Genuinely can’t defend Valve anymore.”
The presence of cheaters in CS2, and the apparent lack of an advanced anti-cheat beyond what was used in CS:GO, has angered many players.
Premier leaderboards are often taken up by cheaters among the top spots, who have been seen to remain on the leaderboards for weeks at a time too, despite very blatant cheating.
The hope now is that Valve is preparing an update to the anti-cheat system, which was leaked prior to the official launch of CS2. But, it looks like we won’t be getting it until at least 2024 now.