Nearly 1 Million Banned in Latest Valve VAC Wave

Nearly 1 Million Banned in Latest Valve VAC Wave

A CS2 developer has confirmed that nearly 1 million accounts have been banned in one of the largest VAC waves in recent memory. The bans were issued and carried out within a single day against confirmed farming bot accounts, marking it as one of the most monumental efforts by Valve to clean up their game’s ecosystem. 

VAC Wave Washes Out Almost 1 Million Bot Accounts

CS2 Dev Ido Magal has confirmed that during Valve’s latest efforts to target-ban farming bot accounts, at least 960,000 accounts have been banned. They attributed the immense success as a result of a series of investigations carried out by the team following user reports.  

Farming bot accounts refer to accounts utilizing scripts, which are designated to ‘farm’ drops in CS2 gamemodes (typically Deathmatch and Casual lobbies). The issues scale depending on the end goal, but there have been multiple reports for years with video evidence of entire bot farm lobbies dedicated to farming drops in CS2 and its predecessor CSGO.

Said farmed drops are then sold on either the Steam Market or one of the many free markets for CS items (skins, cases, sprays, etc). Stemming from Valve skins carrying actual monetary value (thanks to the ability to sell and transfer skins to other user accounts, pervasive issues such as bot farms continue to plague one of the most popular FPS titles even in 2026.

Don't forget to follow Strafe Esports for the latest news about your favorite esports and to check out our X account for the most recent content and coverage. Also, stay tuned to the Strafe YouTube channel for exclusive interviews, press conferences, and much more.

Featured Image Credit: Valve


Read More:

ESL Locks in IEM Krakow 2027, Announces Major Updates for Next Season

One Trophy, Six Contenders: The BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026 Playoffs Are Here

New CS2 Update Changes Reload Mechanics Entirely

Latest news

CS2 Off-Season Roster Tracker Summer 2026

CS2 Off-Season Roster Tracker Summer 2026

Counter-Strike 2's offseason kicked into gear the moment Team Falcons closed out IEM Cologne 2026 on June 21, and the CS2 roster moves have been coming fast ever since.  This tracker logs every confirmed CS2 roster change — signings, departures, benchings, loans, trials, stand-ins, retirements, and coaching changes. Teams tracked have been set as the top 20 European teams, top 10 Americas (NA and SA) teams, and top 5 Asia and Oceania teams, ranked by Valve Regional Standings (VRS) as of June 24.
13h
Foo Zen-Wen

Luminosity Gaming Makes Long-Awaited Return to Counter-Strike after 7 Years

Luminosity Gaming returns to Counter-Strike after 7 years by signing Monte's four-man core and Legacy's IGL. Here's more.
1 Jul
Adarsh J. Kumar

CS2 Update Brings IEM Cologne Major 2026 Champions Autographs and Highlight Charms: How to Get and More

To commemorate Team Falcons' triumph over FURIA at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, Valve has released the Champions Autograph stickers and Highlight Charm to CS2. Let’s find out more about Champions Autographs and how to acquire them.
1 Jul
Ganesh Jadhav

Magisk Joins BC.Game’s Counter-Strike Roster as IGL

BC.Game adds four-time Major winner Magisk as its in-game leader. The Danish CS legend joins s1mple, electronic, and Senzu in the lineup.
30 Jun
Adarsh J. Kumar

FISSURE Owes Prize Money to Multiple CS2 Orgs, Including Astralis, FURIA, and G2

FISSURE has acknowledged outstanding prize pool payments owed to 15 Counter-Strike 2 teams, including top organizations like Astralis, FURIA, and G2. The organizer clarified that the pending amounts relate exclusively to tournament winnings from its event series, not salaries or commercial agreements
26 Jun
André Guaraldo

New Study Finds 400 Million Gen Z Consumers Regularly Engage With Esports

The numbers are in, and they're hard to argue with. A new whitepaper from ESL FACEIT Group (EFG), Hero Esports, and Niko Partners titled The Esports Generation: Who They Are & Why They Spend dropped today, and it paints a picture of an audience that is bigger, more engaged, and more commercially valuable than many brands still realize
25 Jun
Thales Costa

G2 Bench SunPayus; r1nkle Joins CS2 Roster

After what many would consider a successful run at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, G2 CS2 has decided to bench their AWPer SunPayus in favor of r1nkle. The Ukrainian 21 y.o made waves in 2025 with NIP and was benched by the team in April 2026.
25 Jun
Ganesh Jadhav

Comments (0)

Log in to comment on this match