Nobody wants to load into a match and spend the first two rounds wondering whether someone is cheating. It ruins the game, and it is the quickest way to make people stop playing. Fair matches are the whole point of CSGO Matchmaking, so we built a client-side anti-cheat to protect them — and we built it to be honest about what it does.
Not everyone has to run it
Most players will never see it. By default we only require it for accounts that have been heavily reported or that our review process flags as suspicious. If you play fair, you keep queuing exactly as you do now. When an account is flagged, the anti-cheat app is required before it can queue — one app, linked to one account, on one device.
It only runs during a live match, and it shows you
This is the part most anti-cheats keep quiet about, so we want to be clear. The app does nothing to your screen while you sit in menus, queue, or browse the site. The moment one of your matches goes live, it does two things:
- It captures the CS:GO window — only the monitor CS:GO is on, never your other screens, never your desktop or other apps.
- It checks running programs for known cheats (by name — it never reads or writes game memory).
Why it matters
One cheater doesn’t just beat you. They waste the time of everyone in the lobby and make the result meaningless. A win is only worth something if it was actually earned — whether you’re climbing for pride or chasing a spot on the Cash Ladder, where there’s real money on a clean game. Keeping matches clean is what keeps them worth showing up for.
What happens with a capture
Captures from a flagged player’s match go to a private review queue that only staff can see. If the app spots a known cheat, it flags the account, alerts our moderators, and attaches that match’s captures as evidence. A human reviews it — a screenshot is a reason to look, never an automatic ban on its own, though blatant, unambiguous cheats can be actioned faster.
We keep captures only as long as we need them to review: they’re deleted automatically after a short retention window (7 days by default), and access is limited to review staff. We don’t sell this data and we never will. The full detail is in our Privacy Policy.
The short version
Play fair and nothing here changes your night — most people will never be asked to run it. If you are asked and you won’t, you won’t be queuing. That’s a trade we’re glad to make for matches people can actually trust.
Frequently asked questions
- Does every player have to run it?
- No. By default it’s only required for accounts that have been heavily reported or flagged by our review process. Play fair and you’ll almost certainly never be asked.
- Does it watch my whole computer?
- No. It only captures the CS:GO window, and only while one of your matches is live, with a visible red dot in the top-left corner the entire time. It never captures your other monitors, your desktop, or other apps, and it never reads game memory.
- Can I tell when it’s recording?
- Yes — that’s the point. A red dot is shown in the top-left corner of your screen the whole time it captures, and it disappears the moment the match ends.
- What happens to the screenshots?
- They go to a staff-only review queue as evidence for a flag, and they’re deleted automatically after a short retention window (7 days by default). Access is limited to review staff and we don’t sell the data.
- Why does a CS:GO site need its own anti-cheat?
- Because cheating ruins the game for everyone else in the lobby. Ranked is only worth playing when a win can be trusted — and that matters even more in our prize events, where a cheater is taking real money from honest players.