VACnet update detects rage hackers and patches exploit

Last night, Valve updated its cheat detection system, VACnet, and we’re delighted.

For the past week, Premier has been unplayable. Rage hackers infested the game mode, usually queuing in pairs to avoid being kicked and ruining the game for everyone by spinning and instantly headshotting everyone. We ran into this ourselves; both LuzRaposa and I encountered several rage hackers recently.

That was until our timelines refreshed, and this tweet showed up:

Suddenly, a wave of reports of rage hackers being banned flooded in. Some said that even “legit” hackers (people pretending to be legit) are now getting detected. That part is still unconfirmed; however, there does appear to be a legitimate panic setting in over a portion of the cheating community. Even if it’s far from a fix of the actual problem, and only applies to the Premier/Competitive modes for now.

We talked to a cheat developer who wishes to stay anonymous but is known to rdy.gg, and while he didn’t provide us with much detail, he was willing to make a statement on the update:

“It’s a pain in the ass,” he said. “Our least intrusive offerings are still fine, but we will need to make significant changes to our anti-aim (spinbotting), and if no exploit is found, this might be the end for ragehacking in Premier.”

How true this is, we can’t tell, but it is a significant improvement over the issues we’ve had recently.

Which does raise a question: why was it suddenly so bad?

There is a lot of speculation, with the main answer we have coming from the update itself. The patch notes mention an exploit being patched, which could explain the bans and the recent influx of cheaters. Though some with knowledge of the AC suggest that the exploit has been intact for longer.

Another theory is that Valve purposely disabled the anti-cheat to embolden rage hackers and ban them all in one wave, though that could easily be fanfiction.

It’s a chicken-and-egg situation. Did the exploit becoming more widely known cause an influx of cheaters, and thus make Valve more aware of it and patch it, or did Valve let this happen to get an influx and then take them all out?

In any case, this is a step in the right direction for the game. We’re excited to queue and see how well it holds up.