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Imagine, you just got home after a long day of work and are looking to relax by playing a quick game of Counter Strike with your buddies. You log into your account, launch the game, and all of a sudden, you notice that CS2 and CSGO servers are not online.
While the game is generally very stable thanks to Valve’s infrastructure, CS servers still have a tendency to go down once in a while. Is CS down? Are you wandering how to check? In this guide you’ll learn everything you need to know about Counter Strike servers and how to check their status.
What CS Servers are There?
When it comes to CS2 and CS: GO servers there are two different types that you may log into, the Official CS2 servers and CS2 and CSGO Community servers. While they both allow you to play Counter Strike online, there are some significant differences between the two:
Official Servers
This server group hosts a wide variety of popular CS2 game modes including Competitive Matchmaking, Casual Mode, and wingman. The biggest advantage that these servers have over the Community servers is the fact that they are always VAC-Protected. This means that this type of server uses the official Valve Anti-Cheat to ensure players that there will be no cheaters present in their lobbies and that they can expect a fair gameplay environment and punish those players who get caught cheating or using any third-party software that is not allowed.
Community Servers
This type of gaming hub is usually hosted by Steam users by using dedicated server tools. This also features private CS servers that are hidden and/or usually require a password to sign in. Community servers can be used to practice regular maps, as well as play various custom game modes, like CS2 surfing. Due to being run by players themselves, many of these are not VAC protected, meaning that there’s a chance that you will be playing against cheaters. Community servers can host active duty maps, however, most of the time players host their own servers featuring wacky CS2 community maps.
About CS Servers Status
Whether we are talking about community servers or the official CS2 and CS GO servers, there are a few parameters that you should be aware of in order to have a pleasant experience when you join a server and know what kind of servers you should be looking for in the first place.
Among the first important things that you need to consider if you are looking for a perfect server for you and your team to join is latency. In essence, latency is the time that it takes the information from your PC to reach the server and for the server to respond to one or more of your actions. These actions include basic things such as walking, clicking, shooting, and pretty much everything else that you do in Counter-Strike. If the latency is high, the time that it takes for the data to reach the server and back will take longer, and it will result in a choppy experience, which players usually refer to as lag. Also, make sure you check out our guide on how to lower ping in CS2!
Server health is another thing that you should keep a close eye and it is usually connected to the CPU usage. Its condition is almost always displayed with color, green for good, yellow for encumbered, and red for malfunctioning.
At last, the third thing you and your team should get some information about the server load. The load is the number of processes that are currently in the queue on the server. The load is affected by the user number and the actions that players perform in the game.
Is CS2 Servers Down? How to Check CS2 Server Status?
If you wish to see if a specific CS servers or any other Steam server is experiencing any issues, you can check online by visiting the Steamstat.us website. The server information will be displayed on the left side of the screen and you can search the website to see if any new changes have developed in the last couple of hours. On this website, you can also see if the CS2 matchmaking scheduler is working properly as well as other Steam services such as the store.
However, things work out a little differently when we are talking about the Counter Strike Community servers. You can see a good chunk of information related to them in the CS2 client itself, such as the latency and even the number of active players. Additional information and server description are also displayed. Some more popular community CS servers also have a website of their own that always displays the server status as well as some additional information about the community, such as the number of players, how to join, and links to other social media.
Why are CS2 Servers Down?
The reasons why either the official or a community server is having issues may differ from one server to the next, but generally speaking, the official Steam game services are rarely down, and if they are, the first thing you should do is check and see if it is Tuesday. Tuesday is maintenance day for many steam services, which means that online game that uses a matchmaking system might not be available at the time. If it is not Tuesday, then it is likely that either a specific Steam game or Steam service is having some smaller issue which is likely to get fixed very quickly.
When it comes to the other server type, community servers can go down for many different reasons. Some CS servers which run community maps might simply shut down one day when their admins get bored, sometimes they also suffer DDoS attacks and other issues, which can bring them down for prolonged periods of time. If you’re asking yourself: “Is CS Down?”, make sure to check out the official social media channels of your chosen community server.
How to Find CS2 Community Servers?
There is not a single best way to answer this question simply due to the number of ways that you can go about doing this. Group chats and discord communities are some of the most popular ways used to find this server type but are by no means the only ones you can use.
Many such communities have a website of their own or some other social media account that you can use to contact a user like yourself who will provide you with the latest and greatest gaming rooms. Lastly, you can view some of them and their reports in the game itself.
Summary
While Counter Strike servers are generally stable, they might still encounter serious issues from time to time. If you’re expecting issues with your game, make sure you try one of the methods we listed above, as well as check out the rest of our website, where you can sell CS2 skins for real cash!