ESL bans controversial keyboard features on LAN

29-8-2024 15:10

The tournament organizer will follow Valve's stance on Snap Tap and SOCD-like features, for now at in-person events only.

Next week's ESL Pro League will be the first ESL tournament where the assistance features will not be allowed

ESL has announced that it will no longer allow movement-automating keyboard features such as Razer's Snap Tap and Wooting's SOCD at in-person events starting from ESL Pro League Season 20, which kicks off on September 3.

The organizers will continue to allow such features and similar assistants in online tournaments for the time being but expect to update that stance "when detection and enforcement is possible," a representative from ESL told HLTV.

With the ban, ESL is following Valve's hard stance on the matter. After the features became a hot topic following their release earlier in the summer, on August 19 the developers said they "circumvent core coordination skills" and released an update that prevented players from using them on official servers.

Valve take stance against Snap Tap-like features, remove jump-throw binds

In aiding the fight against the use of such features, Valve also thought to have disabled any in-game binds that include more than one movement and attack action, which included various widespread jump-throw binds, but workarounds have since been found.

BLAST was quick to follow with a ban on similar keyboard features in their tournaments. That included the online Fall Showdown, even though it would have been difficult to police the rule due to no reliable detection tool being publicly available.

BLAST ban Snap Tap for Showdown onwards

yay

2024-08-29 15:11

Is Wooting’s rapid trigger still allowed?

2024-08-29 15:13

4 replies

Yes

2024-08-29 15:14

3 replies

How come? I thought Valve only banned SOCD and rappy snappy? Wooting didn’t say anything about rapid trigger. It only sets your actuation point.

2024-08-29 15:28

2 replies

Is Wooting’s rapid trigger still allowed? Yes What?

1 reply

My bad

2024-08-29 15:29

Should've listened to Ropz from day1 of this crazy talk instead of that ESL person who said it was allowed.

Epic

2024-08-29 15:16

2024-08-29 15:21

good decision

rare L for ESL, it doesn't affect the game a lot and yet they are banning this

11 replies

if it doesn't affect the game then why do so many players use it...

2024-08-29 15:32

Snap-tap gives you an advantage, but it's not gonna make you automatically win a match just because you use it. G2 is proof of this, because they lost a couple matches even when the whole team was using this keyboard. The discussion around this keyboard is fake drama. Realistically, the advantage you get from using snap tap is not different from the advantage that a high refresh rate monitor gives you. Playing at 240Hz vs 60Hz for example also gives you an advantage, but everyone with a high refresh rate monitor knows that you won't magically hit every flick just because of the monitor.

2024-08-29 17:10

TOs provide monitors so everybody has the same

2024-08-29 19:16

It's entirely possible that TOs can give players the option to use a snap-tap enabled keyboard. This way everybody can have the same keyboard as well.

2024-08-29 23:28

Yes but not everyone wants to use snaptap. It's literally not even player input anymore. Everyone wants a higher hz monitor. Some people simply would ONLY ever use snaptap if they have to because others are using it. Some people want every input in the game to be made by the player not some hardware or software. Not a single person thinks the game plays better At a lower hz and would prefer to play at a lower hz.

2024-09-04 05:26

That's why so many pro's started using razer keyboards suddenly because it doesn't affect the game alot?

2024-08-29 15:36

if we look at their stats, it's not like it should be considered cheats because it makes you a god once you turn it on. but i get the vision, they just want players to not use any artificial input so that everyone's more or less equal in terms of gameplay

2024-08-29 16:43

LOL "it doesn't make you god" = "it's not a cheat" MEDS

2024-08-29 19:11

I barely play cs nowadays but socd allowed me to play the game without any need of warming up or derusting

2024-08-29 16:38

So true. Socd just makes you aim better. Totally don't need to warmup aim. Just because you can play silver competition without warming up doesn't really mean much. People have done it for over a decade without socd

2024-08-29 16:46

Level 8 faceit, 20k premier, but my first shot accuracy was crazy w socd. helped me get a lot of kills lol dk why ur hating tbh

2024-08-29 16:54

Daddy Valve forced you to go against what your sponsor told you to say, quite scummy to sacrifice competitive integrity of the game just because of one sponsor. And I really doubt Razer is a big sponsor...

2024-08-29 15:31

at least wooting rapid trigger is allowed

2024-08-29 15:44

I dont see why it wouldn't be allowed. It just tells the keyboard how early the key is pressed, nothing else

2024-08-29 23:31

bye bye G2 and SAW

2024-08-29 15:51

rip scene

2024-08-29 16:08

give jumpthrow back

2024-08-29 17:34

2024-08-29 22:26

Razr could just create a keyboard that has a VERY narrow actuation point, and accomplish almost the exact same thing that Snap Tap does. Also, this entire controversy doesn't make a lot of sense. If I hold down two keys, I expect the most recent key to be the one providing input. That's how almost every program on the computer functions. Not sure why CS2 having that functionality is somehow causing an uproar. Slightly lowering the skill ceiling isn't always a bad thing.

2024-08-30 01:59

snap tap is more of a skill floor raiser for the average cs player. it does very little to raise the skill ceiling of pros, most of them already mastered counter strafing. even im at an average of 90% counter strafing statistic according to leetify. and im only faceit 9. pros should be on avg around 92 ~ 96% i reckon.

2024-08-30 05:24