CS:GO’s Retake mode is currently unplayable in Asia, specifically on the Tokyo servers, due to a swarm of bot accounts that enter and kick out real players.
This issue was brought to attention by a player via an Aug. 7 Reddit thread. Japesthetank said real players have been locked out of Retake servers for over a month because of this bot problem and that Valve has done nothing to fix it. The Retake mode is a good alternative for players who don’t enjoy deathmatch as they can still practice their aim against real players while defending or retaking bomb sites.
“I’ve reported no less than 3 farms including their profile links as a support ticket as well as reported in-game for griefing and reported the profiles as well,” Japesthetank said. “Weeks and months go by and the profiles are still not banned and retakes have been unplayable for over a month now.”
Fortunately, a few hours after Japesthetank posted this problem, a Valve employee responded to the post and taught players how to properly report. Players must send an email to “cs2team@valvesoftware.com” and title it “boosting report.” The body of the email must contain screenshots of the scoreboards, links to the bot accounts’ profiles, and a link to your own profile.
Other than Japesthetank, players from North America and Australia reported the same issues in Retake and Flying Scoutman servers.
While it hasn’t been confirmed, it’s likely that players are using these bots to play less-competitive modes and get free loot boxes at a moment in which skin prices are spiking due to the incoming release of CS2. The bots could also be used to level up accounts from zero to two, which is the minimal level cap required to start playing competitive matches in CS:GO.
If you’re also unable to play deathmatch or Retake in your region due to this bot issue, you can try setting up a private server to practice your aim while Valve attempts to ban the bots.
