Why is Valve kicking players out of CS2 beta?

CS2 players woke up to their beta access being revoked out of nowhere. What could it possibly mean? 

Valve granted Counter-Strike 2 access only to the cream of the crop. Players who stayed loyal to Matchmaking, however broken it may be, were rewarded with rare CS2 access in March. Since then, the remaining majority has been waiting for their lucky day, but it’s starting to seem like a pie in the sky, considering even some current playtesters are getting kicked out. 

CS2 players are apparently being plucked out of the game servers for no obvious reason. One player reported it as a possible bug, but many others have since documented the same error message while attempting to start the game: “Cannot begin matchmaking because your client is running Counter-Strike beta.”

Now, it’s difficult to claim what it means, but players have reasonable ideas. 

CS2 beta access revoked by Valve

It seems that Valve is finally getting to fixing the reported bugs during the testing phase, and in order to do that, the developer is kicking out the excess. As brutal as it is, it also suggests that CS2 is on the horizon. 

Valve initially announced that CS2 would release in the summer of 2023, which is only a month away. So the game’s launch could be anywhere from June to September. Some speculate that Valve may have planned to remove players once testing was completed, as no bug fixes were being made during the CS2 testing period.

So, player access being revoked isn’t entirely a negative thing. It only points to an early release or at least progress in the testing phase. However, Valve being Valve hasn’t addressed the issue yet, which is not sitting well with the playtesters. 

It remains to be seen what this new development leads to. So far, playtesters are frustrated, and those who were left out of the beta are taking solace, hoping that access being revoked means the release date is drawing close. Whatever the case, Valve should post an update soon.