If you don’t keep up with FACEIT players, you probably have no idea who nocries is. The talk of the Counter-Strike town, nocries is an 18-year-old prodigy playing in premium matchmaking in North America.
The player garnered notoriety for his unbelievable Counter-Strike skills and has been under community purview because of it. The traction was enough to force FACEIT to invite him to their HQ and compete under their supervision.
[embed]https://x.com/FACEITcs/status/1970913803803283873[/embed]
Who is nocries?
With stats better than donk's, CS2’s greatest prodigy himself, nocries’ gameplay was under heavy community scrutiny. To completely understand the suspicion, we have to look at the numbers.
In the last 20 matches (before the FPL invitation):
- Win Rate – 75%
- Headshot% – 62%
- Kills per Round – 1.74
All while nocries rose from an average 2k Elo player to become the #1 FACEIT player in just a few months. Naturally, the community was skeptical about the youngster’s skills. Given the viability of cheats in Counter-Strike, the possibility of an undetectable cheat lingered.
The cumulative effect was a community convinced that the youngster was cheating, and reporting him for it. Despite FACEIT’s anti-cheat clearing him, the witch hunt continued, forcing them to intervene. As a way to clear nocries, FACEIT invited him to play under their supervision at their New York HQ—similar to what they previously did for ropz in the past, who faced comparable accusations.
[embed]https://x.com/ropz/status/1970932836694954270[/embed]
Is nocries cheating?
From nocries’ gameplay, it is hard to explicitly call his plays as cheating. Even to seasoned players, the plays don’t scream foul play. However, there is a noted dissonance between his aiming and the rest of his mechanics. This is better explained by Renyan in his dissection of nocries’ gameplay.
While his reads are extremely on-point, this is expected from a player who sits atop the competitive ladder. Unfortunately, that dissonance alone cannot be considered evidence of unfair practices.
Moreover, during his time playing from the FACEIT HQ under supervision, nocries’ stats continued to impress:
- Win Rate – 60%
- Headshot% – 58%
- Kills per Round – 1.37
Given he was playing away from his usual setup, this nominal dip is expected. And despite the “unnatural” gameplay, he might simply be legitimately great at the game.
For now, FACEIT’s anti-cheat and management have found nocries clean.
[embed]https://x.com/FACEITcs/status/1971378175172280533[/embed]
While this doesn’t immediately end the witch hunt, it has earned him an invite to the FACEIT Pro League, where he can continue to prove himself.
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Featured Image Credit: FACEIT CS2 on X
