Faceit’s dangerous plan to ban smurfing explained

Ivan Frigato Published November 14, 2024

After a recent massive ban wave in the summer of 2024, fans can look forward to a hopefully even cleaner experience with Faceit’s new smurfing ban process.

Faceit is a huge platform for running games such as CS2, Valorant, and more, boasting features like a proprietary anti-cheat system and advanced matchmaking system. Despite this, the company revealed earlier this year that it has banned hundreds of thousands of accounts due to toxic behavior and smurfing. Now, it seems that Faceit is looking to continue improving the gaming experience for real players with a new way to fight smurfs. However, the new model could result in legitimate players getting caught in the crossfire.

Here’s how Faceit plans to upgrade its smurfing ban model and when players can expect to see it go into effect.

Faceit seeking to automate smurfing bans

The new Faceit anti-cheat update will detect and ban smurfing accounts automatically rather than rely on human checking.

The new auto-banning system will be part of Faceit 2.0, a new platform potentially launching at the end of November 2024. There are several benefits to automating bans. It can free up manpower to focus on other gaming aspects while still ensuring a relatively thorough process of keeping out cheaters and toxic players. Several popular games, including CS2, use some degree of automation in their anti-cheat systems.

Image credits: Valve

How Faceit currently bans smurfs has never been fully revealed to avoid those trying to game the system. Last year, the support team did clarify they only banned when there was direct proof of a second account with a significantly lower Elo. Additionally, when addressing the massive ban wave, Faceit also stated that it was making more changes to its anti-smurfing toolkit. These included faster detection, stricter checks, and better optimization.

Some fans are worried that the new update to smurfing bans could lead to a CS2 situation. Players recently rated CS2’s anti-cheat as the worst among similar shooter games. Valve uses a machine-learning algorithm to detect suspicious game behavior. However, according to player experience, it doesn’t seem to work nearly as well as many would hope. Additionally, while automating smurfing bans could speed along the process, there could also be more incorrect bans or more exploitation if bad actors figure it out.

The other major leaked feature is an advanced stats service that is currently in early beta. Fans can look forward to accessing this new free feature alongside Faceit’s new smurfing ban implementation.

Faceit’s efforts to ban smurfing are making waves, but for players, knowing the fast way to watch Faceit demos in CS2 is equally essential.