Ex-CSGO Pro’s VAC Banned Account Gets Exclusive CS2 Access

Hovik ‘KQLY’ Tovmassian receives the highly desired Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test invitation on his VAC-banned account

Counter-Strike players all around the world have been hankering for beta access to the new Counter-Strike sequel. Many have been clocking hours in their CSGO accounts, hoping it would grant them entry to the CS2 Limited Edition. Surprisingly, Hovik ‘KQLY’ Tovmassian, who retired from professional CSGO in 2019, received the much-coveted CS2 Limited Test access on an account that got banned from competitive gaming. 

They gave me cs2 on my vac acc 😅 pic.twitter.com/vFEkQSpp63

— Vem_KQLY (@KQLY_) March 28, 2023

The former eFrog AWper took to Twitter to reveal that Valve granted his Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) account CS2 access. Valve red-listed the profile in 2014 and slapped it with a VAC ban to prevent it from participating in professional CSGO matches. 

Before he got hit with a ban, KQLY was one of the rising stars in the European CSGO scene, having played for teams like Team LDLC and Titan. Titan benched him following the ban and released him a few months later. KQLY went on a three-year hiatus before coming back to professional CSGO with Vexed Gaming in 2017. He joined eFrog a year later, had a brief spell there, and called it quits in 2019. 

KQLY did not sit in front of the monitor in a competitive setting over the last four years. He currently works in the rental car industry to make a living.

How Valve Selects Players For The CS2 Limited Test? 

Valve revealed on Twitter that they take into account several factors before inviting a player to join the CS2 Limited Test. The development team looks into the recent gametime on official Verve servers, Steam account standing, trust factor, and many other details. 

Players are selected for the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test based on a number of factors deemed important by the Counter-Strike 2 development team, including (but not limited to) recent playtime on Valve official servers, trust factor, and Steam account standing.

— CS2 (@CounterStrike) March 22, 2023

Valve will continue to roll out the game to a limited number of players until the full release in the summer. How can you land a CS2 Limited Test invitation? Some users on Reddit and other forums have revealed that they are trying to idle on Valve’s CSGO matchmaking servers so that they can trick the system into believing they have garnered sufficient playtime. Valve, however, have confirmed that the strategy would be nothing but a colossal waste of time.