Valve bans keyboard automation in Counter-Strike 2 update

Some keyboards have special features like Razer's Snap Tap and Wooting's SOCD, that can give an unfair advantage in online games, and so Valve have put their foot down and entirely banned such tricks in Counter-Strike 2.

Valve didn't name any hardware makers directly, because of course they wouldn't - they don't want to get in trouble, but it's easy to find out who it's aimed at. Snap Tap, or Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions (SOCD), in super-simple terms is a way to have two keys (like A/D for character strafing) not cause you to come to an abrupt stop when you hold both down, instead allowing you to instantly change directions while keeping your accuracy (see Razer's explainer). In fact, Wooting themselves even said "SOCD is basically cheating" in a video to showcase the feature.

Now, Valve decided enough is enough and it's actually a skill to get it right with your fancy fingers and so they've banned any kind of similar automation.

Here's what Valve said in the Counter-Strike 2 update:

Counter-Strike is constantly evolving. From art, to maps, to inventive plays, and even player input, the CS community shapes the game.

Scripting and automating player commands has always been contentious, but over the years some forms of scripting (e.g., jump-throws) have gained acceptance, as they enable plays that wouldn't otherwise be possible. In fact, jump-throws became such an important part of the game that we've done the work to make them reliable without any special scripting or binds (i.e., by jumping and quickly throwing a grenade).

Developing one's coordination and reaction time has always been key to mastering Counter-Strike.

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.

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.

To prevent accidental infractions, in-game binds that include more than one movement and/or attack actions will no longer work (e.g., null-binds and jump-throw binds).

If you have a keyboard that includes an input-automation feature (e.g., "Snap Tap Mode"), be sure to disable the feature before you join a match in order to avoid any interruption to your matches.