With games in 2026, we’d expect developers to have refined their matchmaking platforms, especially after running their games for over two decades. But in CS2, the vast majority of the playerbase opts for a third-party matchmaking platform, FACEIT. But what draws players in is it just historic habits? Or is CS2 Premier really that bad?
Counter-Strike has never had a single home for competitive play, from community servers to third-party hubs, the gaming playerbase has always been fragmented long before the CS2 release date, but from the first iterations of CS, all the way up till CS2 premier season 4, which was just released.