Want to get into the Counter Strike 2 beta? Counter-Strike 2 is live in beta, but it’s unfortunately closed to the majority of the public. The surprise CS:GO replacement will bring plenty of changes, with new smoke grenade tech, revamped maps, and a sub-tick system that, according to Valve, means “tick rate no longer matters for moving, shooting, or throwing”. If you’re eager to gain access to see all of those improvements with your own eyes, then you’re in the right spot.
In this guide, we’ll break down how to get into the Counter Strike 2 beta. Valve will steadily roll out more invites over the coming months, according to the CS2 FAQ, so we’ll also cover how to check if you have access.
How to get into the Counter Strike 2 beta
To get into the Counter Strike 2 beta, you need to receive an invite from Valve. Valve have named three pieces of criteria, listed below:
- Steam account standing
- Trust factor
- Recent playtime on Valve official servers in CS:GO
Steam account standing refers to your VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat System) status, which you can check by clicking Steam in the top-left corner of the Steam app, followed by Settings and Account. You’ll see your VAC status just below your email address, and clicking on the related link will open up a separate page with more details.
Trust factor, on the other hand, is a term directly related to CS:GO. According to a Valve blog from back in 2017, when they first announced the system, the Trust system uses “observed behaviors and attributes of their Steam account, including the overall amount of time they had spent playing CS:GO, how frequently they were reported for cheating, time spent playing other games on their Steam account, etc. We call this system Trust, and these factors considered together form a player’s Trust Factor.” It was later widened to include activity on all Valve games. Unlike your account standing, you cannot see your Trust factor.
Before you start grinding to meet that last requirement, however, a word of warning. After some players spent days grinding across CS:GO’s various modes, Valve issued the following statement on Twitter.
PSA: Idling on official matchmaking servers in CS:GO does not increase your chances of making into the CS2 Limited Test. The playtime that counts was your playtime prior to the start of the Limited Test.
— CS2 (@CounterStrike) March 27, 2023
“PSA: Idling on official matchmaking servers in CS:GO does not increase your chances of making into the CS2 Limited Test”, it reads. “The playtime that counts was your playtime prior to the start of the Limited Test.”
So, if you were planning to get back into CS:GO in the hopes of snagging an invite, it seems you’ll probably be waiting until the full release arrives in the summer.
How to check if you have access to the Counter Strike 2 beta
To check if you have access to the Counter Strike 2 beta, open up CS:GO. If you got lucky, you’ll see an invitation notification on the main menu.
Select “Enroll” on the notification, and then start your download. Once the download of CS2 has finished, reload CS:GO and select “Limited Test” to play Counter Strike 2.
If you haven’t received an invite, keep an eye out on the CS:GO main menu in the coming weeks and months. While Valve haven’t shared an official time frame of when to expect more invites, they do say that “more players will be added to the Limited Test over time”.
Counter Strike 2 beta features
Currently, the Counter Strike 2 beta contains just one map: Dust2. You can play either Deathmatch or Unranked Competitive modes, so it’s fairly slim pickings for now.
Valve have clarified, though, that “future limited test releases will offer other game modes, maps, and features”, so expect new content to arrive in the months between now and the full launch.
That wraps up our guide on how to get into the Counter Strike 2 beta. We all wish that Valve would make more games, but it seems that we shouldn’t get too hopeful. The Counter Strike 2 files indicate that Left 4 Dead 3 is a non-priority, after all.
