Accidental banwave sweeps through CS2 as ‘ghost’ glitch ruins games

A February Counter-Strike 2 update is wreaking havoc today after an unforgiving glitch began booting and banning players who shot near an allied corpse—all because the unlucky players were accidentally dealing “too much team damage.”

The update, which went live on Feb. 12 and includes several fixes for VOIP sound, the new Kukri Knife, and artifacts around smoke particles, has apparently introduced a new glitch, with many players reporting the issue after the patch went live. In one video sharing the evidence, the player drops into Nuke’s Vent shortly after their CT teammate dies, but after damaging the enemy, they were kicked from the game and handed a 30-minute competitive cooldown.

It appears that, once a teammate dies and their model hits the ground, their “ghost” hitbox remains upstanding and invisible. Shooting an enemy through this invisible hitbox is recording the damage as team damage. Of course, dealing too much team damage results in a kick and a ban (no complaints there), but in this case, it’s entirely accidental and caused by the brutal new February glitch—and players are furious.

“I’m pretty sure you have to damage an enemy, not just shoot your teammate’s body, but damage an enemy while your teammate’s ghost hitbox is in the way,” explained one begrieved CS2 player, while another reported players were even being kicked from Casual, which is even weirder given you can’t damage your teammates in that game mode.

Many more were pissed at the ghost hitbox bug, which has resulted in a few getting kicked from Premier matches and handed extended suspensions, which can range from 30 minutes to a week for repeat offenders. Valve is reportedly addressing the cooldowns, but that hasn’t stopped players from losing Premier Rating after getting kicked.

While we’re sure this CS2 bug will only be temporary and Valve is likely already narrowing down a fix, it won’t help those who have already been affected by the glitch. It’s the latest in gamebreaking issues to affect CS2, including a “wallhack FPS bug” and another “invisible player” glitch that may have played a part in affecting results at the Major RMRs. Here’s hoping these bugs are squashed, pronto.