ESL bans Snap Tap from Pro Tour events

Tournament organiser ESL has announced that the use of Snap Tap will be banned from its Counter-Strike 2 events.

The controversial keyboard feature gives players a significant advantage while counter-strafing, but will now be prohibited in the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 20.

In a post, ESL explains that the ban currently relates to in-person tournaments, though it promises a future follow-up for guidelines on the feature’s use in online play, admitting that this will cause “some inconsistencies until detection and ways to enforce are in place” in the meantime.

ESL’s ban also applies to similar assistants that produce the same outcome, including Rappy Snappy.

CS2 developer Valve had already announced the feature’s ban from use on its own official servers earlier this month, explaining that they would not allow “automation (via scripting or hardware) that circumvent… core skills.”

Snap Tap, also known as Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions (SOCD), is a feature whereby only the most recently-pressed keystroke is registered, even if other keys are still being held. 

This gives a notable advantage while counter-strafing; the action of stopping one sideways movement and quickly tapping the A or D key in the other direction to immediately stop movement and make the player’s aim more accurate. In regular keyboards, the initial key would need to be unpressed before the opposite can be triggered. This is a skill learnt by players and is a fundamental mechanic for professional players to perfect in a number of FPS titles.

Snap Tap keyboards allow players to strafe while continuing to hold the initial key and quickly tapping the opposing key, resetting aim each time. This would all but eradicate the need to learn the mechanics previously required, thus arguably eliminating the skill in strafing and counter-strafing that had been there before.