As the keyboard debate continues, tournament organizers say 'Play on'

Input-assist tools have begun to take over the CS scene, and no one is sure what will happen.

Rarely before has a simple keyboard firmware update taken up so much of the public conversation in the Counter-Strike scene. Over the last weeks, content creators, analysts, a select group of professional players (more on this later), and the community at large have engaged in a fierce debate about the in-game advantages that Razer's Snap Tap and Wooting's SOCD (Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions) can provide and whether they should be outright banned in esports.

Razer took the competitive gaming world by storm on July 9 with the release of Snap Tap for its Huntsman V3 Pro keyboards. The feature lets the keyboard prioritize the latest input between two selected keys, allowing for more accurate counter-strafing in FPS games like Counter-Strike 2, and eliminating human error.

In essence, it does the same as null-binds but on a hardware level. Null-binds are key bindings created with console commands that allow players to disable multiple key inputs at the same time. They have long been a controversial topic in movement game modes like KZ and Surf and are banned in tournaments.

A few days later, Wooting announced the release of the beta version of Rappy Snappy — a feature long in development that takes advantage of its keyboards' Hall Effect sensors.

In a post on X addressing "cheating concerns," Wooting stressed that Rappy Snappy "is not the same" as Razer's Snap Tap, explaining that, rather than prioritize the last-pressed key, it monitors user intention by comparing how far down two keys are pressed.

"We believe SOCD should be managed by the game, not the device, so that everyone is on a level playing field," Wooting added.

However, the Dutch company quickly realized it was shouting into the wind, so it created a poll asking if it should introduce a feature identical to Snap Tap. And the results were clear.

Forced to put ideologies aside, lest Razer would gain a significant advantage in this keyboard battle, Wooting resigned itself to making SOCD available on all its keyboards. "If it's allowed, you need it," the company wrote.

"We are gamers foremost and think building SOCD into keyboards is a bad development," Max Janssen, Partnership Manager at Wooting, told HLTV. "We would have never thought this would be allowed because of the impact it can have on games.

"We built Rappy Snappy because it improves your accuracy by a very marginal amount. We thought of SOCD in the past but right away didn’t want to put any further action into it because it was very clear this shouldn’t be a thing. We have always been for improving people's hardware as much as is legally allowed."

Opinions on just how powerful Snap Tap and SOCD vary greatly. "Razer’s new keyboard is basically cheating," claimed YouTuber optimum. More recently, YouTuber and analyst Donald "Voo" Parkhurst released a video on this topic explaining why he believes that Snap Tap is "worse than you think."

But the consensus seems to be that there are no downsides to using these features, and that the advantages they provide, however marginal, can make a difference in the game.

"If you're a pro and Snap Tap is allowed on the highest level, you'll definitely want to use it," said YouTuber MrMaxim. "It pretty much only comes with benefits."

The same opinion has been expressed by Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill. "If it's allowed, you're better off having this than not having this," the Australian caster said on a recent episode of the 'Talking Counter' podcast. "If these players can get their hands on one of these keyboards, they definitely should. I don't know why you wouldn't. It is going to give you an edge."

I learned about Snap Tap days right after IEM Dallas. The North American tournament was one of the first tier-one competitions where players were using Razer's feature, even though it had not been released or even announced. I couldn't help but imagine a world where some teams can have a competitive advantage simply by having a good rapport with a peripheral company or being sponsored by one. (MOUZ, who are sponsored by Razer, denied having used Snap Tap during their ESL Pro League 19 run. Some of the team's players, the organization added, tested the feature for the first time after being eliminated in Dallas.)

HLTV asked two professional players to test Snap Tap before it was released to the public. (Razer granted us early access to the feature for this article.) One of the players requested anonymity. Below you can find their thoughts:

Player 1: "In a normal keyboard, I can never do the same perfect strafe consistently. And there is a delay in the response from the game/keyboard. What I immediately felt with this was that strafing was consistent and the movement was cleaner, like in CS:GO. Strafing is more consistent because you no longer have the feeling that you're sliding when you're counter-strafing. And, of course, the response is immediate when you press the key."

Sebastian "⁠beastik⁠" Daňo: "The advantages are brutal, you can feel a big difference and it really feels like CS:GO movement. But considering I read that these are pretty much the movement aliases that are banned at tournaments, it doesn't make sense to me that this would be allowed, and they should ban it, in my opinion. It's an extreme advantage in tier one."

beastik is part of a minority of players who have publicly expressed concern about the impact of these input-boosting tools. The most vocal member of the group is FaZe star Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, who wrote on X in response to Snap Tap's release that the feature "should not be allowed" in tournaments.

"I come from a 1.6 KZ background where null-binds are strictly forbidden and most people I’ve talked to agree that this new keyboard technology gives an unfair advantage," he told HLTV about Snap Tap. "The fact of the matter is it’s essentially a macro / built-in script, which does two actions at once and automates a core aspect of the game that has a major impact on all movement inputs.

"In other words, when you move with A, then press D, it automatically releases A, so overlapping your peek or strafe is impossible, it doesn’t care when you lift your finger off A. Overlapping keys would cause a loss in momentum and is completely normal for everyone. However, this technology or null-binds would create 100% long-term strafe accuracy with zero overlaps, which should be impossible because, in the end, there will always be human error.

"In competitive CS matches, the skill differences will be lost and everyone could make world-class peeks, shoulder-peeks and counter-strafes. On average, the peeks will be faster, the counter-strafes will be faster and therefore the moment to shoot will come faster, while the skill level goes down.

"In movement modes, it gets more complicated but uses the same basics. It could make a difference in a world record, where the competition is down to milliseconds or millimeters (units).

"Null-binds in CS have existed for almost 20 years and it is clear what they do. There are no disadvantages to it, it just corrects movement mistakes. Either null-bind keyboard technology should be simply forbidden or allow these scripts to be used in configs. I recommend option one."

Razer did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but a company representative told HLTV that at the recent BLAST Premier Fall Groups, 36% of players were using the Huntsman V3 Pro. That figure could not be independently confirmed, and it's worth noting that some players might be using the keyboard without Snap Tap. They also said that some of the other players at the event were testing the keyboard.

Wooting has also enjoyed a rise in popularity among gamers since the release of Rappy Snappy and SOCD. "The interest has definitely spiked a lot," Janssen said. "Our sales went through the roof the last couple of weeks.

"We have had many tier-one CS pros pre-order the 80HE. A lot of them have reached out to us to try a 60 HE+ or the Two HE. You can expect an increase in Wooting keyboards in Cologne."

HLTV knows that ESL has told players that all keyboards and mice are allowed in its tournaments. It began to keep track of the peripherals used in events only at the Esports World Cup. BLAST told HLTV that it doesn't keep a record of what players use.

This is a convoluted situation, made all the more complex by how fragmented the Counter-Strike ecosystem is, with multiple tournament organizers, each with its own rules and systems in place, and third-party matchmaking services. The lack of a unified response has only added to the confusion.

At the end of July, FACEIT clarified that null binds, while allowed in normal FACEIT games, had been banned from ESEA matches, which follow the ESL Pro Tour rulebook, even though anyone using Snap Tap or SOCD can effortlessly achieve the same result. "I'd recommend holding off purchasing a Razer keyboard in case this changes," FACEIT Community Manager 'Darwin' wrote on Reddit on July 23.

Many players have begun using Snap Tap and SOCD in events, yet you will be hard-pressed to find public endorsements of these features from pros. That's because these tools fall into a gray area that no one knows exactly how to deal with, and there's still a chance that they will be banned in the future. As a pro player, there's no upside to publicly backing these features: you risk facing ridicule if one day they are stripped away from you.

For some players, there's also the issue of playing with a keyboard from a sponsor's competing company. While most teams give players free rein to use the keyboard of their choosing, regardless of the hardware maker, there are some rare cases where players must use gear provided by a peripheral partner.

As things stand right now, a ban on these input-assist tools will most likely have to come from Valve. HLTV knows that the developer is aware of these features but has not yet made a public stance. And tournament organizers certainly don't want to be the ones poking into the hornet's nest, leaving the whole scene in a state of limbo ahead of events such as IEM Cologne and the Shanghai Major.

Marc Winther, Director of Game Ecosystems - Counter-Strike at the ESL FACEIT Group, told HLTV that there had been discussions with multiple parties, including other tournament organizers and Valve, about this topic. "However, we have nothing to share from these conversations."

He added: "SOCD features are indeed allowed in our tournaments, and while we are monitoring the situation, there are no changes to that for now."

Janssen said that Wooting is considering implementing a tournament mode for the company's keyboards, allowing event organizers to disable certain features, including SOCD. "This is something we would love, but TOs and Valve will have to decide what to do with all these different types of keyboard brands," he said. While this mode could be a workaround measure at LAN events, it wouldn't stop players from using these hardware features in online competitions or on matchmaking platforms, which are much, much harder to police.

If you've been following the Counter-Strike scene long enough, you will have noticed the volatility of the space, where what you know today might not be applicable tomorrow.

It's been nearly a month since Snap Tap was released, and we're still nowhere closer to understanding the full potential of these features or even knowing for a fact that they will be here for good.

For now, all we can do is sit back and enjoy the games. The show, as they say, must go on.