Valve is changing Counterstrike’s key features to combat its ever-existing problems.
Valve has announced a new patch that will make some major adjustments to CS:GO. These come in the form of new unranked matches as well as significant changes to non-Prime accounts.
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Unranked Matches
The developers have introduced a new Unranked mode in the game. New players who play Competitive, Wingman, and Danger Zone game modes will match against each other using skill, but they will not acquire any Skill Group. These matches will essentially be unranked. The Prime members will also be able to play unranked matches.
Changes to Non-Prime
Until now, new accounts playing Counterstrike: Global Offensive had access to the Prime status after a certain amount of playtime. However, with the recent update Valve has restricted XP, Ranks, drops, and Skill Group. Only Prime members will get these features.
Valve’s decision to make these important changes is not a surprise given the current player experience, especially on the company’s official servers. Valve had made the game free to play over three years ago. However, including newer players who attain Prime status solely based on playtime has deteriorated the quality of matches. Conversion of CS:GO from a paid game to a free one has now flooded its servers with hackers and smurf accounts. This has made the game much more difficult play for many.
Valve has made a stern effort in combating this problem. Now that players can only attain Prime status by purchasing it, there should be a decrease in hacking and smurfing in the game.
