A new feature from CS2 Tracker, designed to track abusive language in Valve's Counter-Strike 2, has led to an unintended consequence: players are now competing to top leaderboards for the use of slurs. The "Slurs Tracking" feature, which went live earlier this week, has reportedly caused an increase in the prevalence of racist and homophobic language as players aim for top rankings.
When the feature was first highlighted, many of the top 25 players in categories like the "n-word," "r-word," and "f-slur" had fewer than 100 recorded instances. Currently, the minimum number of "n-word" uses in the "n-word" category on CS2 Tracker stands at 976. Content creator Thour noted that the rise in slur usage is directly linked to the leaderboard competition, stating that players are becoming "increasingly racist and abusive in CS2 just to climb a leaderboard that tracks the number of abusive messages they post in chat."
Publicly available chat logs from top-ranking users on CS2 Tracker appear to corroborate this claim, with some players openly stating their goal to reach number one on the slur leaderboards. This development raises questions about Valve's efforts to moderate in-game communication.
Players have long criticized Counter-Strike 2 for its lenient language-filtering options, which seem to primarily target third-party weapon skin marketplaces rather than in-game chat. This issue adds to existing player complaints about widespread cheating, including wall-hacking and auto-aim, with many feeling Valve has been slow to intervene and address these persistent problems.
Kotaku reached out to Valve for comment regarding plans to address the rise in toxic language but had not received a response by the time of publication.