Hacks in online games are nothing new, and they continue to be a nuisance across nearly every online title. While these ban changes seem tailored to forgive talented players who made mistakes in the past, it falls upon talented individuals to deliver karma to people wanting to falsely claim dominance in an online lobby. The Valve Anti-Cheat software is known for being relatively efficient but is largely powerless against waves of botted accounts that exploit the free-to-play game's ease of access.
Recent changes made to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's VAC Ban policy have opened the door to a host of returning players otherwise blocked from the game by a ban. With the VAC ban system on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive not having seen an update in 8 years, this change could be the first of many reintroducing banned players to the game as CS: GO enters its ninth year.
The core of the change is the alleviation of the ban on some CS: GO accounts, no longer barring the banned accounts from official Valve events. Banned accounts bearing the block for over 5 years have seen clemency with the new changes, though the official blog post does stipulate that any account with a VAC ban received after their first participation in a Valve-sponsored event will not see forgiveness. This slams the door for some high-profile CS: GO players with years-old bans.
It's definitely worth noting that the other effects of a VAC ban will still be held in place on the affected account, greatly restricting the banned player's ability to actually play the competitive online game in the first place on the original account. It's more noteworthy as a reprieve on the personal level, with individuals who have been barred from the professional level of CS: GO play being allowed in after this lengthy probation period.
It's easy to dismiss these changes as practically worthless to the vast majority of the player base, with it easily argued that the game would be better if it left its cheaters in the past entirely. Valve has shown in the past it isn't keen to forgive Counter-Strike cheaters, so the exemptions being made here are really just borne of allowing those who have served their time in the ban zone back into the professional fold, as few and far between as those top-tier cheats are.
Other massively popular titles like Destiny 2 and Valorant have been seeing joint action to tackle cheaters recently, though neither is so old as to be considering action to forgive past hackers as Valve has with this new move. While most players won't feel a difference, Valve's new-found leniency for some of its flagship competitive title's oldest offenders could bring a few old faces back into the scene as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fights to stay shoulder-to-shoulder with its newer competition.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is out now for PC, Linux, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Source: Valve