Valorant anti-cheat dev offers to help with CSGO cheater problem

The solution to cheaters in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive may come from an unexpected source.

A former Riot Games anti-cheating developer has reached out to Valve offering to help fight cheaters. The conversation was spurred by a social media post from a Valve developer, who called cheating a pervasive problem across all online competitive titles. The outcome of this conversation has not been revealed, but every CSGO fan knows that Valve needs all the help it can get when it comes to stopping cheaters.

The offer came from an unexpected place. Valve developer John McDonald, who is known for his public statements, made a political comment on social media. Fans responded with jokes about CSGO’s cheating problem. McDonald responded with his own quip about how almost every multiplayer PC game has a cheating problem. In response, a Riot Games anti-cheat developer reached out to offer his services for Valve’s tactical shooter. 

Nemanja Mulasmajic is a programmer who has previously developed anti-cheating measures for Riot Games and Activision-Blizzard. His exact contributions are not known, but he most likely helped create Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat program. His company, Byfron Technologies, specifically creates anti-cheating programs for online games. Mulasmajic also runs a blog where he shares insights about programming.

If Mulasmajic or his company are brought on with Valve, they could help develop new technologies to stop cheaters in CSGO.

The exact methods used by the company to detect cheaters is understandably kept a secret. If hackers knew Valve’s methods, it would make it even easier to create hacking software. Based on what we know about Blizzard and Riot’s approaches, this could lead to a root-based anti-cheat system for CSGO.

Does CSGO have more cheaters than Valorant?

The exact number of cheaters in Valorant is not known, but the game probably has less of a cheating problem than Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Fans have a rough idea of how many cheaters play CSGO based on bans. But players have no way to tell how many undetected cheaters are ruining Valve’s matchmaking.

There are several reasons why Valorant most likely has fewer cheaters than CSGO. Riot Games’ shooter is still relatively new to the market. CSGO has existed for almost a decade, so there’s been plenty of time for malicious programmers to develop cheats. Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat system is also much more invasive than Valve Anti-Cheat. Valorant’s anti-cheat is active all the time, even when the game isn’t open. VAC can only detect programs that directly interfere with CSGO, though there are obviously ways to circumvent it for dedicated hackers.