If you're finding that you can't login to CS:GO this morning, it might be because you were hit with the banhammer in Valve's biggest clean sweep of hackers and griefers in a long long time. If that's the case, you're far from the only one, as Valve is claiming victory over thousands of cheats, as well as making future hacks in the same vein impossible.
Early estimates put the number of people banned at around 1,600, but it's expected to be far more before the end of today. Most hackers were found to be from China and Russia, but a fair number were from the West too.
As PCG points out, these bans are entirely permanent as well. Valve has no appeals process for those caught up in the ban-storm, it's entirely VAC controlled and there's no way to have a ban lifted. That means if you are caught, you won't be able to play on secured servers, only on ones with other cheaters.
Perhaps this will make a few people's Christmas gaming a little fairer? What do you guys think?
