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If you were banned in CS:GO, we have some bad news for you.

Valve has officially, finally announced Counter-Strike 2 - an overhaul of CS:GO that ports the game over to its Source 2 engine with better visuals and performance upgrades. It’s an exciting time to be a Counter-Strike fan… unless you were one of the 304,655 accounts Valve banned from playing CS:GO last year, that is. In that case, you might be wondering whether you can play Counter-Strike 2 at all.

Valve Anti-Cheat (otherwise known as VAC) keeps players from using third-party software to manipulate the game and turn the odds in their favour, but that doesn’t mean cheaters are nonexistent in the game’s highly competitive multiplayer scene. Valve has banned more than 300,000 accounts for cheating in the last year according to CS:GO Stats, and has probably continued to ban even more accounts since this data was reported.

Given the vast amount of hype for Counter-Strike 2 however, it’s likely that most if not all of these banned players want to give this new version of the game a shot. But can banned CS:GO players actually play Counter-Strike 2? Valve, fortunately, has the answer in the upcoming game’s FAQ section.

In the FAQ, Valve outright states that players with, “VAC or game bans in CS:GO cannot play Counter-Strike 2 on VAC-secured servers.” This means that anyone who was caught cheating while playing CS:GO will not get a do-over with Counter-Strike 2, seeing as they could easily become repeat offenders and ruin the fun for everyone else. Counter-Strike 2 is still free-to-play, so it will likely have to deal with its fair share of cheaters in due time.

Counter-Strike 2 launches in Summer 2023, and a limited test for the game is running right now. For more information on the game’s upgrades and additions, read our summary of the announcement here.

Valve explains: Can banned CS:GO players still play Counter-Strike 2?