CS2 Trust Factor is working again, and it’s more brutal than ever

Trust Factor is back in Counter-Strike 2, and leakers claim it’s better than before.

CS2 Trust Factor does not necessarily punish or reduce cheaters in any way, but it does help players stay aware of what they are getting into before they hit go. It’s an alert system that lets you know how trustworthy a teammate is based on an unknown but credible metric by the Valve.

Trust Factor alerts stopped appearing when CS2 was released. The system has now returned, and if credible leakers are to be believed, it’s putting a red label on both cheaters and their teammates.

• Related: CSGO dev says trusted accounts see few cheaters, players disagree

Does CS2 have a Trust Factor?

Yes. Trust Factor was quietly enabled in CS2 after the June 12 update.

The June 12 release notes included fixes for audio and animation glitches but did not mention the Trust Factor. However, CS2 insiders and leakers discovered that soon after the update, cheaters started getting red pop-ups alerting them of their low Trust Factor.

After some investigation, it was revealed that CSGO players with good Trust Factor ratings experienced a decline. Additionally, one player mentioned that their teammate received a low Trust Factor even though they weren’t directly using cheats, but their account was being boosted by a cheating player.

If that’s the case, CS2 players can expect a nice surprise. Having a low Trust Factor will make it easier to steer clear of cheaters and compete against fair opponents. Moreover, a visible pop-up will encourage players to maintain good behavior and avoid using third-party software to gain a competitive advantage.

Valve hasn’t yet mentioned the return of Trust Factor. It’s possible that the feature existed all along, but pop-ups were added just now. In any case, it’s a much-needed update since pop-ups can also be extremely helpful in clean matchmaking.