FACEIT unveils new Anti-Cheat software

The tournament organisation, FACEIT, has announced that its Anti-Cheat software is heading into Private Beta. In a press release from the 24th November, the announcement follows on from its new “FACEIT Behavioural Index”, continuing the company’s efforts to create a positive gaming base.

FACEIT is best known in CS:GO for hosting a match-making system for high-level players, as well as hosting online qualifiers for large tournaments. In the past they’ve partnered with DreamHack to host their league finals and they’re also currently partnered with TBS’ ELEAGUE, as well as hosting the Esports Championship Series alongside Twitch.

faceit anti-cheat
A small snippet of the new FACEIT client

This is a piece of software that has been in development from the UK based organisation for some time, and considerable resources seemingly went into creating it. The stated goal is a piece of software “that not only could become a standard, but that could improve significantly over time.”

In the interests of making sure the software remains effective, the complex way it works has been kept under wraps. However, the general approach to the software was revealed as being approached in two ways:

  1. Relying on client-side detections (similar to other anti-cheat services), having a quick short-term impact on detecting cheats.
  2. An integrated approach, garnering information from the client, server and other FACEIT services to detect cheating. This way could potentially, in the long run, detect cheats the traditional method couldn’t.

The new client will also tie-in with their notifications system, similar to software offered by clients from ESEA and ESL, in order to keep players in touch with each other for matches or tournaments. FACEIT has also stated that it expect its new software to be out of closed beta quickly, with the initial testing stage expected to “last 7 to 10 days”.

Esports Insider says: FACEIT releasing a client-side anti-cheat service will finally answer the prayers many have had during a game on FPL or during online qualifiers to tournaments on its system. This will help massively in the interests of competitive integrity in a whole swathe of tournaments.