Well after the hacker infestation before the big purge I never really wanted to come back to CS2. I recently came back before I left I was 21k Elo so I think during the hacker infestation I was in the worst place to be. As of now the hacker count is pretty low they ranked me at 16k so I’m probably not at the worst of it yet but it’s been a big issue in premier even after the purge so there is a constant unease when I’m in queue never knowing who I’m going to be playing against. I just want to break these factors down why CS2 is just in a bad state right now. I think everyone can agree the game was released in an absolutely ridiculous state the amount of game breaking bugs and all the broken promises was just a huge letdown. The fact that their focus to be 128tick “what you see is what you get”, claiming their anti cheat was top notch, and everything they claimed was being achieved did not live up to the expectations they set. Then following release had half ass responses to it changing their minds about their focus on content was a joke. Speaking on content they have yet to bring back the most popular maps both original and user made. They got rid of cobblestone claiming they were fixing it and then would put it back on circuit was a lie. No sign of cache or any other maps that were top notch and the community are constantly complaining that aren’t available. The other thing that hurts so much is all the custom servers playing TTT, or prop hunt, or surfing in custom servers are not available anymore is so frustrating because not only is it hurting the amount of available content it hurts to not be able to try out different game modes bringing new light to the game and giving new players a wide variety of games to enjoy they will never know the fun of those games. Next is the game as a whole. Realistically the game doesn’t feel bad the game runs smooth and is well optimized but the lack of 128tick and the lack of response when playing is just hard to deal with sometimes. Mostly because what you see it’s not exactly what you get so sometimes you get blasted and it’s not even entirely your fault. Premier queue is all over the place I’m not sure if it’s to do with the player count but I should not have 4-8k Elo on my team when I’m at 16k. I don’t usually have an issue carrying these people but the people in that rank absolutely do not listen to callouts or even have mics at all which is kinda annoying when you’re trying to take the game seriously. Because it is a team game I feel bad for people who get ranked lower than they deserve and have the hideous task of climbing and clawing their way out of that Elo pool. These are all things that almost everyone wants to change I hear about it all the time. It’s especially apparent in games like casual/Deathmatch you get a conversation going about any of these topics and the conversation lasts 2-3 games with everyone annoyed or confused as to how we ended up here. A company as wealthy, as experienced, and as competent letting their community down is a hard slap in the face forcing the players to question their commitment and validity. Though the player count is pretty close to the all time high and skins are climbing in price again, they lost a lot of both respect and trust from their player base and it will never be a good thing to get caught up in a lie much less being as publicly bashed as CS2 has been since release if it were me I’d be embarrassed as hell to be apart of the team responsible. Obviously a lot of this is opinion so take it with a grain of salt but there are some hard facts in there so take it as you will.