Valve bans Razer and Wooting’s new keyboard features in Counter-Strike 2

Valve bans Razer and Wooting’s new keyboard features in Counter-Strike 2

Image: Valve

Valve is banning Counter-Strike 2 players from using keyboard features to automate perfect counter-strafes. Razer was the first keyboard maker to add a Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions (SOCD) feature to its range of Huntsman V3 Pro keyboards last month, followed shortly by Wooting. Using Snap Tap as Razer calls it or Wooting’s Snappy Tappy will now get you kicked from Counter-Strike 2 games.

“Recently, some hardware features have blurred the line between manual input and automation, so we’ve decided to draw a clear line on what is or isn’t acceptable in Counter-Strike,” says Valve. “We are no longer going to allow automation (via scripting or hardware) that circumvent these core skills and, moving forward, (and initially—exclusively on Valve Official Servers) players suspected of automating multiple player actions from a single game input may be kicked from their match.”

Image: Tom Warren / The Verge

You’ll get kicked from a Counter-Strike 2 game if you use Razer or Wooting’s new SOCD keyboard features.

I’ve tested using SOCD in Counter-Strike 2 this morning and can confirm you get removed from a game on Valve’s official servers, but there’s no account ban. Valve is banning the use of these keyboard features, but it doesn’t appear to be ready to ban accounts for using them right now.

Razer and Wooting’s SOCD features both let players automate switching strafe directions without having to learn the skill. Normally, to switch strafe directions in a first-person shooter, you have to fully release one key before pressing the other. If both are pressed, they cancel each other, and you stand there for a moment until you release one of the keys. SOCD means you don’t need to release a key and you can rapidly tap the A or D key to counter-strafe with little to no effort.

Some professional Counter-Strike 2 players had called for SOCD to be banned, much like how null binds that prevent you from pressing two opposing directions have been banned in tournaments for years.

Wooting reluctantly added a beta version of SOCD to its range of keyboards after Razer introduced the feature on its own hardware. “We are glad Valve has taken a stance against Snap Tap,” says Wooting in a post on X today. “Don’t use Snappy Tappy (SOCD) or Rappy Snappy in CS2 any more as it will result in a kick.”