Pros unite in harmony to trash CS2 movement

Have you noticed that your movement is a little off in CS2? You’re not alone.

CS2 brought a ton of cool changes to Counter-Strike, including enhanced graphics and reactive smokes. But one of the biggest changes has significantly impacted what many pros consider the most important part of the game — and not in a good way.

Movement has come under heavy fire from pro players, with many calling it sluggish, tacky, or downright horrible.

The most damning criticism came from commentator and former pro Jacob “Pimp” Winneche. He referred to the new movement as being strictly worse than what is available in CS2, even comparing the feeling to when he used to be severely overweight.

The more I play Counter Strike 2 the more sad I get.

The movement is at best awful. Clumsy, slow, crouching and then moving makes me feel like I'm at 130kgs again.

Movement has always been the one thing CSGO got spot on, as in BEST of the BEST.

Praying they solve it somehow!

— Jacob “Pimp” Winneche (@PimpCS2) June 8, 2023

In WIN.gg’s interviews with pro players at IEM Dallas, multiple pros cited movement as a major concern. Finn “karrigan” Andersen of FaZe Clan called it “a little sloppy and a little buggy.” Reigning IEM champion Guy “NertZ” Iluz claimed: “I was sticking to the walls when I played matchmaking on Dust 2. I think they have a lot to change.”

Even after the recent update where Valve claimed to have fixed movement, certain techniques like the ninja and TenZ jump have suddenly become impossible. This was pointed out by Petar “HOLMES” Dimitrijević on his Twitch stream shortly following the update.

It’s not clear what is causing these strange movement issues, but the sheer amount of criticism shows that it should be Valve’s top priority.

Why is movement worse in CS2?

Movement is closely tied with servers, so the new tickless server system in CS2 is likely the culprit for the nerfed movement.

When players move in normal CSGO, their inputs are registered to the server 64 times every second. That includes left, right, forward, back, jumps, crouches, and all combinations of those inputs. With tickless servers, those inputs are theoretically only received when players make them. On paper, it should feel the exact same. However, enough pro players have spoken out about the issue that it’s clear something is wrong.

Pro players have specifically pointed to the tickless servers as the reason for other problems, with sticking to walls as a common complaint. Valve has yet to acknowledge pro concerns, and it will likely stick to improving the tickless system rather than reverting to the standard tick system of CSGO.

However, it’s possible that third-party matchmaking services like FACEIT will continue to offer standard 128-tick servers for competitive play in CS2.