Divided CS2 fans demand "no more fake bans" after VAC Live ban wave

Report notifications due to a VAC Live ban have been noticed less since the release of CS2. Perhaps part of the reason was that VAC, Valve's anti-cheat system, wasn't working to its expected capacity. However, recently, a host of players were banned from CS2, and matches were canceled across servers. Now, players are seeing notifications indicating that their reporting a player helped get them banned.

A CS2 player took to their X handle to respond to a post speculating that VAC Live bans are working because cheat users were caught complaining about getting banned. To this, the player shared their experience with report notifications. They asked for "no more fake bans" from Valve:

"I hope its the real one, no more fake bans and rerolls afterwards."

These report notifications are a newer widespread phenomenon. While report notifications have always existed in Counter-Strike, it's important to note that many players have been seeing them after the VAC Live ban wave.

A similar sentiment was shared by a player on Reddit:

Reports are working! byu/MotanZx incs2

Fans are clearly happy to see the progress and that VAC Live ban waves are effective to a certain degree. The ban wave was a sudden incident, videos of many players getting banned and removed from the match went viral too.

Soon, a decrease in the CS2 player count was noticed, potentially indicating that the ban wave had removed many cheaters. However, some fans speculate that maybe not all bans are coming to light for a reason.

Fans believe Valve is intentionally hiding the bans (Image via Reddit/u/LWOS101 and u/Former-Sorbet-4432)

However, not everyone has had a positive experience. Some reported that most of their games have cheaters and not nearly enough of them have faced a VAC Live ban even after the massive ban wave that took over the game. In fact, some players have never seen the report notifications.

A fan hasn't seen a notification in 7k hours of gameplay (Image via Reddit/u/Wrong_Item_1774) took kindly Fans on how cheaters are still getting away with it (Image via Reddit/u/epirot and u/eoekas)

Spinbots are notoriously difficult to play against because a game is over just about as soon as a spinbot hacker enters it. CS2 has seen many complain about playing against players who blatantly cheat and win matches without facing the consequences. One player suggested that all spinbot abusers are still out there and have not been banned.

However, a user was certain that actual actions taken against abusers don't reflect in the individual report notifications that players receive:

Not everyone took kindly to the VAC Live bans. However, a new implementation of the Overwatch system could make a world of difference.

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Overwatch system potentially in the works after massive VAC Live ban wave

The Overwatch system was used to invite trusted and seasoned regular players to take up the role of investigators and review footage of potential hackers. These players would then vote on whether the player was hacking or not.

This is from the CS:GO days. Now, leaks suggest that the devs are working on a way to implement the Overwatch system in CS2 to help get more hackers banned and out of the system. This could be the next big thing.