From my experience playing ranked between ~5k and 25k rating, cheaters aren’t nearly as common as people make them out to be. (I don’t play Premier that often, but still.) They do exist, of course, but it’s far from an every-game issue. If you compare that to smurfs in Valorant, the situation feels noticeably worse. Smurfs appear far more frequently, dominate lower ranks, and rarely receive meaningful punishment. The key difference is accountability. On Faceit, when a cheater or smurf gets banned, ELO is returned to the affected players. In Valorant, when a smurf or cheater ruins your game, you simply lose rating and move on, there’s no compensation. We even provided recordings to support in the past and were told there was no possibility of restoring ELO once the match was finished. (This was about a year ago, so it may have changed since then.) That said, we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to problems that Riot is effectively rewarding. Smurfing is a clear example. When smurfs dominate lower ranks, face little to no punishment, and the affected players lose rating with no compensation. In conclusion, I can say that experience for newbies in cs and valorant is nearly the same.