Did you know that the human brain can only see 30-60 fps?

Yes, of course you do. Someone is always quick to say it whenever anyone suggests that 128 tick is better than 64 — and we won’t be killing off this debate as early as expected.

In the biggest CS2 controversy since yesterday, reddit user u/MmX_A_ set the world alight by revealing that CS2 servers actually run on 64 tick. Kind of.

Valve revealed their ‘tickless’ system with the game announcement, claiming that “moving and shooting will be equally responsive and your grenades will always land the same way regardless of tick rate.”

Which, has been… challenged.

FACEIT launched their servers this week, and the server data shows they are updating certain actions 128 times per second — actions MM servers only update every 64.

Shooting still seems to be ‘tickless’ as promised. But “view angles” (waffle for movement) seem to be 64, confirming how the movement might feel off in C2, and grenades are landing differently in FACEIT’s servers.

Regardless of whether we can ‘see’ the difference between 64 and 128 tick, or fps, or Hz, people are adamant that they can feel the difference. Multiple pros are already saying that FACEIT’s servers feel (that word again) more like CS:GO.

There are more factors at play than raw tick rate, of course. FACEIT have a smaller player base and their subscription model means they can justify running better (and more expensive) servers.

But… really? Valve OWN STEAM. Money can’t be a problem, and CS2’s demanding graphics should kill the idea that 64 tick in GO was to optimise for people on potato PCs.

CS2 was supposed to unite the player base back on one platform. The main target for players was supposed to be in-game, on the CS Rating leaderboard. 

But if the status quo isn't fixed during the beta, it looks like we won’t be uninstalling the FACEIT anti-cheat just yet. 

On Friday we, with our tongue placed firmly in cheek, said that the Heroic era might be over without a trophy to show for it.

We recognised that we were massively overreacting, as is our modus operandi, and that this was just a blip on the Heroic radar.

However…

Things pretty quickly went from bad to worse, all the way down to EG tier, as Heroic compounded the misery of losing to BIG by getting slapped by MOUZ and dumped out of Pro League by a Monte team who’d lost to MIBR.

This doesn’t, of course, mean that all hope is lost. It’s one event, and even though they lost three BO3s and failed in a group stage for the first time since 1977 (citation needed), they could bounce back and win the next event.

The problem is, that… well, they’ve not won enough events to curry favour.

Yes, they’ve been one of the best in the world for a while, but have always failed when it matters. At least when FaZe fell apart, you thought they could always pick it up on stage; Heroic don’t even have that luxury.

That ‘EG tier’ dig wasn’t completely unfounded either - they quite literally finished in the same position, having both only beaten Rooster. At least they put out their academy team to do it.

ENCE finished top of the group having dispatched of BIG in a 2-1, while despite their Monte-conquering and EG-removing antics MIBR failed spectacularly at the final hurdle, getting dumped out by a rampant Monte on Anubis.

A 13-2 half from the European mix was swiftly converted, and despite losing to MIBR earlier on in the lower bracket, Monte survived the last chance stage to join the playoffs.

In summary, here are Group B final standings:

Qualified:

🇪🇺 ENCE 

🇩🇪 BIG 

🇪🇺 MOUZ

🇺🇦 Monte 

Eliminated:

🇩🇰 Heroic

🇦🇺 Rooster

🇺🇸 Evil Genuises

🇧🇷 MIBR

• Music is cool, but according to graphics geezer aNdyj, great music videos are even better. 📺 Candle Flame by Jungle features both music, and a video. Whatever will they think of next?
• Some… BODY once told me to recommend 🎶 Smash Mouth. It was napz. Blame him. In memoriam of their singer, Steve Harwell.
• The sun is up, you’re 🎶 wide awake. Time to dance. Via beefkeeper.
• dickle’s Lovecraftian YouTube recommendations take us to Zdzisław Beksiński, 🎨 “the nightmare artist”.
• Something to cleanse your pallet afterwards - a baby 🐘 elephant taking a shower. Aww.

The games never stop coming at Pro League, and Group C looks like it could be the most fun.

There’s questions marks all over the place - group favourites (well…) FaZe Clan have gone well beyond underwhelming and straight into ‘a bit crap’ tier this year, but this is a group lacking in huge names, for the most part.

NAVI will feel like they should be walking this group - though their start to life with the new roster has been patchy, an opening game against 5yclone (prev. Rare Atom) sets them up nicely, and Apeks or M80 will have to stop them auto-qualifying for playoffs in the next stage.

That leaves - assuming both do get through with no issues - 9z, Imperial, fnatic, Apeks, M80 and 5yclone fighting for the remaining two spots.

Apeks are a solid team, though teething problems with CacaNito have led to some unfortunate losses against big teams so far. Realistically, they’ll also be thinking they should be getting through, and might have a shout for being better than FaZe, but are on NAVI’s side of the bracket.

fnatic are the other ‘big’ name there, but they’re beyond inconsistent and seem to struggle to get through the easier groups. Imperial are their first game, and they’re no mugs. HEN1 and felps can take over scrappy games with ease, and fnatic have to be careful.

M80 have been performing well domestically, and this is a first taste of international play for the Americans. They can’t really do much worse than EG. malbsMd and Swisher are a hyped duo in the region, and will almost certainly be at the centre of any success.

9z are perennial underdogs, but never easy to beat. They’ve collected scalps seemingly every time they’ve travelled to Europe - and 5yclone have beaten some big teams on LAN as well under the old roster.

This group, more than any other, is massively unpredictable. The only certainty is broky being last alive every round.

💪 CS2 requires skill.

• Leetify gave us a good insight into who’s doing well in the new CS Rating. Hint: it’s mostly CS:GO tryhards who had nothing else to do this week.
• If you do become that first player to rank below 1k CS Rating, just blame 64 tick. Or is it 128 tick? Nobody seems to know for sure.
• You can also git gud and grind in practice with this nice config Pavel has made for you.

🎵 Ch- Ch- Ch- Changes…

• Different name, same team. TyLoo is (soon to be) back, baby.
• CS2 does seem to be getting some FPS improvements, which is good. Volvo always had good performance for its price.
• Why switching to any chess based rating system is actually a bad change for Counter-Strike. Chess ≠ CS.

🔄 Time for something else

• The Mahone Zone is done-zone? Sad to see you go Mahone.
• We never would’ve Geoguessed that move, Launders. Also, you’re at 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W.
• Tired of the CS2 leaderboard? Looking for something else? Join our tl;dr HLTV fantasy leaderboard and show us how little you know about pro CS too.