The tick-based rift of the CS community, be it 64 in matchmaking or 128 elsewhere, looks to stay around with CS2. On Sept. 9, Players have discovered that FACEIT’s CS2 servers will be running with a 128 tick rate whereas Valve’s official matchmaking remains at 64. Though Valve advertised their new and improved sub-tick update system for CS2 that was supposed to render these differences irrelevant, it seems that won’t be enough to reunite the dispersed community.
Former professional CS:GO player kennyS voiced his opinion on FACEIT’s server performance. “I actually hit a flick that felt like a flick – Pistols are accurate – Sprays are possible” he said in a Twitter post. However, he also added that this experience might just be a “placebo,” but a positive nonetheless.
One of the primary weapons in CS, the AK-47, was reported as being broken and unreliable on official servers. This issue is supposedly fixed by changing the “cl_updaterate” to 128, which may further prove that CS2 servers should switch to 128 tick rate.
Former Polish CS pro TaZ also shared his first experience on FACEIT’s 128 tick servers. He said that it “really felt different” and that “There is a big difference on how you need to play on MM vs FaceIt.” He also added that he will do some more testing in the following days. With pros seemingly agreeing that FACEIT’s servers felt and performed better, the future and the relevance of Valve’s Premier mode in matchmaking might be uncertain.
The CS:GO playerbase is already largely accustomed to playing on separate matchmaking systems such as FACEIT and ESEA at the higher levels of play. Valve’s efforts to reunite the community may be at stake if the official servers prove to be significantly worse than third-party ones. Sub-tick updates were Valve’s attempt to patch the rift between official and high-level play, but right now, it seems like they still have a long way to go.
FACEIT and ESEA were the primary choices of many pros, and those aspiring to reach professional status as a high FACEIT rank put them on the map. Official matchmaking offered no such options in CS:GO, while CS2 may just succeed in bringing those players back. We will probably have to wait for CS2‘s full release, and the many updates to come, to determine whether Valve will ultimately manage to overcome the issues of vanilla matchmaking.
