Valve announced a limited test beta for their next Counter-Strike game, and players can find out if they were invited by opening up CS: GO and searching for a banner with “CS2 Banner” displayed prominently within its main in-game menu.
Playing on official Valve servers and maintaining a high matchmaking rank are your best bets for receiving an invite, especially if you hold Prime Status.
1. Look at your friends list.
Counter-Strike 2 is one of the most beloved online games ever, yet getting an invitation to its beta test remains very limited. According to surveys, less than 4% of players have been granted this privilege. If you’re keen on taking part in its limited test version, there are a few steps you can take to determine your eligibility:
Before anything else, look closely at your friends list and the “Friends that Play” section – this usually lists friends who regularly participate in specific games or matches. If any CS2 players appear, this could indicate that it may be possible for you to join the beta; reach out and ask if they have an invite before forming squads together and playing CS2.
Another way to check if you got CS2 is by opening up the original CS: GO game and checking if you received an invitation to participate in the Limited Test for CS2. It will appear on your menu screen, but be careful, as it can easily slip past without you realizing it. Once clicked, a window saying something like “Congratulations on getting into CS2!” or similar words should pop up.
Other ways of checking for CS2 include your CS: GO matchmaking rank and the Trust Factor level of your account. While the latter remains unclear, it appears to correlate to both play time on Valve official servers (not including community servers) and your behavior within the game – behaving respectfully while being an excellent teammate will undoubtedly increase it!
As for CS, GO’s ranking system, CS Rating, will affect your placement on regional and global leaderboards. To improve your rating this way, play matches using Premier matchmaking mode during CS2 Limited Test matches to increase your rating and the chance of getting invited to the full version of the game. The new ranking system was created as a more precise display of skills; therefore, you must play regularly to increase your chances of obtaining an invite for CS2.
2. Check your Steam profile.
Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) will be released this summer as a free update to Counter-Strike: GO through Steam. While anyone with an account can download it, some restrictions do apply: your computer must meet minimum system requirements; agree to Valve’s Privacy Policy and Subscriber Agreement before being eligible; be a resident of either North America or Europe before trying your luck at getting it installed if that applies; all three criteria may qualify you to download CS2. If these criteria apply to you, then downloading it could be possible! If all three requirements apply, then CS2 may become available – depending on availability & needs being fulfilled, all three conditions may allow the download of CS2. If this applies, all states may enable access to CS2, depending on availability; depending upon its release, it could enable downloading!
Additionally, to qualify for the CS2 Limited Test in CS: GO, you must possess at least a competitive level 15 competitive rank – this ranking will determine your eligibility. To earn such an honorable status in the matchmaking system CS: GO utilizes. You can easily view your order using official websites or third-party services such as Leetify.
Your Steam profile provides another means of checking CS2 status; click “Steam” in the top-left corner and then “Settings,” after which your account information should appear – such as VAC standing under your email address if your account has been blocked from accessing CS2. However, If it has, no access will be possible to CS2.
If you qualify for the CS2 Limited Test, an invitation should have arrived by now. If this hasn’t happened yet, try running the game as administrator – this will ensure all game files have been correctly installed on your system and that everything remains current.
Players have reported this as a viable step to fixing VAC, which cannot verify errors. Typically, this error arises from incompatible files in one or more games on their local disk drive, potentially caused by video cards and drivers not supporting each other. To address this problem, install only compatible video cards and drivers for your system.
3. Check your Steam account.
Valve makes it abundantly clear that they only invite players based on criteria they deem essential for the team behind the game, such as recent playtime on official servers (do not include community servers), having an excellent matchmaking rank, and no VAC bans in your Steam account. Other factors may influence an invite, such as your behavior in the game and whether or not you are considered a good sport.
Valve’s criteria are highly subjective, making it hard to ascertain precisely what they’re looking for when selecting accounts to receive CS2. Generally speaking, it would make sense for them to prefer funds that have been playing on their servers for an extended period and reward those who demonstrate good sportsmanship by treating fellow gamers fairly.
Some days ago, someone on this subreddit posted a screenshot showing they received an invite for the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test. Unfortunately, due to other significant events happening within CS: GO, their post did not gain much traction – however, there is an easy way to check if you received one: visit Steam Account Manager on your computer and search your profile name for “Invite Status.”
First, log into your Steam account and then open a browser. When logged in, look for a link on the left side of your Steam page titled “Steam support.” this should open a new tab displaying all reported issues and an overview of each one and their current status.
At the bottom of this page, you should be able to ascertain if your problem has been solved through an update. If so, the date it was released should provide information on when exactly this update took effect on your Steam account.
If there are no updates, your problem was not addressed and your account wasn’t invited to participate in the CS2 limited test. Don’t take this personally; Valve will continue adding players as part of the test so everyone will eventually have a chance to experience its future for themselves.
4. Check your Steam friends list.
Reddit players have discovered an innovative technique for viewing your friend’s list without starting Counter-Strike 2. To access this hidden page on Steam after signing into your account, visit the u/Nadeproductions thread and log in with your credentials. Once there, you will see a list of users accessing the CS2 Limited Test. Although initially, this list may appear empty, it should fill up with regular invitations distributed alongside major updates of CS: GO. Remember that CS2 is only available on PC and Mac platforms, meaning you won’t be able to play the game if you don’t own one of those systems. Also worth mentioning is that Valve only permits up to 100 people at one time to participate – though additional invitations should become available shortly.
