CSGO players are probably familiar with the term “competitive cooldown.” But what exactly is it? And what happens if you get one? This article will answer all your questions. Keep reading to learn more about competitive cooldowns in CSGO.
In the online first-person shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO), there is a CSGO competitive matchmaking mode that puts players in matches against others of similar skill levels.
This mode is often played by professional gamers, as it can be very challenging and rewarding. However, if you are unlucky enough to get into a bad streak, you may end up with a competitive cooldown. What this means is that you are temporarily restricted from playing in the competitive CSGO matchmaking mode.
Competitive Matchmaking Cooldown in CSGO
First, let’s discuss what the competitive cooldown means. The game will take multiple steps before giving you a full cooldown for bad behavior during competitive matchmaking CSGO games. To keep things simple, we’ll refer to all of these steps as a single cooldown.
Step 1
The first step that the game takes is to track your behavior for 7 days after you receive a competitive matchmaking cooldown. If you accumulate enough bad behavior points in this time, the system will automatically give you another competitive cooldown.
This happens regardless of whether or not you’ve already received one on that account. One competitive cooldown is enough to last you 2 weeks, or 14 days.
Step 2
The second step involves manually reviewing your account to determine whether or not it should receive a cooldown. This is done by Valve employees who have access to each player’s “trust factor”.
To keep things simple, we’ll call these people to trust employees. Trust employees look at a variety of factors that can involve anything from a single bad competitive match to a history of bad behavior. This step is also performed after 7 days have passed since a competitive cooldown was applied.
What Happens During a CSGO Competitive Cooldown?
If you receive a competitive cooldown, the penalty will be applied to all of your accounts regardless of which one was being used during the incident that led to the penalty.
In other words, if your friend is using your account and he gets reported for cheating or something else that would result in a competitive cooldown, you will receive the penalty even though it wasn’t your account that was doing something wrong.
When an account is issued with a competitive cooldown, various things will happen on the account. These changes apply to all of your CSGO accounts regardless of whether or not they were involved in the incident that led to the penalty being received.
Things happen during Competitive Cooldown:
-
- You will no longer be able to queue up for CSGO competitive matchmaking. This means that if any one of your accounts has a cooldown and it’s logged into CSGO at the time you start up the game, you won’t be able to join a server through CSGO matchmaking.Since you can only have one account active at a time, this means that you will no longer be able to play competitive CSGO until the penalty has been lifted from your account.
- You can still play other game modes such as casual and deathmatch, but only with friends. This is different from normal cooldowns in which you could play those modes by yourself or with a group of people who weren’t on your friend’s list.However, if you join a casual or deathmatch game with one or more friends who were also on the account that received the cooldown, then all of you will be able to continue playing those modes as usual.
- Competitive CSGO matchmaking cooldowns can last up to 2 weeks (14 days) from the day it’s issued.This means that if you’re still on cooldown after 14 days, you will no longer be able to play any mode of CSGO other than offline with bots. That means that even casual and deathmatch games won’t be available to your account(s).
- If you receive a competitive cooldown, you can still open up the game. The only thing that you won’t be able to do is to start CSGO prime matchmaking until the penalty has been lifted from your account(s).
- Getting a competitive cooldown will put your account on probation. This means that if you receive another cooldown within 3 months after the first one has ended, then you will no longer be able to play any mode of CSGO other than offline with bots.You will essentially have been “perma-banned” (Permanently Banned) from playing competitive CSGO on your account(s) until the penalty has been lifted.
How You Can Avoid CSGO Competitive Cooldowns
As mentioned earlier, a single bad competitive match isn’t enough to warrant a penalty.
This means that you have to be careful about what you say and do in-game to avoid receiving a competitive cooldown for griefing or being toxic towards other players.
The best thing you can do is maintain a positive attitude whenever playing CSGO. If you’re in a competitive match and there’s a player that is being toxic with their chat, then the best thing to do is just report them after the match has ended.
The fewer reports that they have against them, the less likely they are to receive a penalty. Just report them afterward and focus on the rest of the match.
Of course, if someone is claiming to hack your account, then it’s best to contact Steam Support after the match has ended. This is a serious incident that shouldn’t be ignored under any circumstances.
Conclusion
As we mentioned earlier, a single bad competitive match isn’t enough to warrant a penalty.
The best thing you can do is maintain a positive attitude whenever playing CSGO and just ignore any teammates who are being toxic or making personal threats during the game.
If your account didn’t work for competitive cooldown then you can even buy a csgo account, a new one.
In a nutshell, a single bad competitive match isn’t enough to warrant a penalty. It’s best to ignore teammates who are being toxic or making personal threats during the game. If you have any questions, please contact us.