I'm not going to venture too far into what Prime Matchmaking actually is, as most already know the details, but Prime was introduced into CS:GO in April 2016 and is essentially Valve's attempting at reducing the number of smurfs and cheaters - and in that respect, it has worked to an extent. To become "Prime" you must reach level 21 and link your phone number to your steam account. As only one steam account is allowed per phone number, it was difficult for some to create multiple prime accounts.

If all members in a lobby were prime, they were put into a match with other prime accounts, thus reducing the chance of encountering a cheater/smurf. Similarly, non-primes were placed with other non-prime groups.

Prime does have its benefits. As a result of the system, there are fewer cheaters and smurfs in our CS:GO matches. On top of that, the chance of meeting somebody who has been boosted to a skill group is also lowered slightly, as they would likely have to be boosted by a non-prime account meaning that they would encounter other, simmilar accounts on the opposing team. However, that is the limit to the system's benefits, as far as I can tell.

In my eyes, prime's negatives outweigh its positives. But first, let's talk about my experiences before and after Prime was introduced..

Having started playing CS:GO in January 2016, I had just broken into Gold Nova by the time Prime was released. Throughout my few long months of being in silver, I can honestly say I don't remember encountering anybody who I could be sure was cheating. Of course, there was the odd player who has a little suspicious, but looking back on it now they were likely a smurf of a higher rank who we, at the time, didn't believe could possibly be that good without cheating. Obviously now that I'm LE, I might even see the same skill level as that as being bad at the game.

After Prime was introduced, I saw very few differences in terms of the amount of cheaters/smurfs. Whilst many claim they did, I personally saw little change, and while I feel good to know there is even smaller chance of a cheater ruining my game, I think it is not worth it when we consider the effect on new players it has made.

When I began playing CS:GO, I found competitive to be very accessible, and I even enjoyed solo-queueing in the lower ranks, despite the masses of angry foreigners. However, I know several people who have started playing CS in the last few months and are really struggling due to the level 21 limit. Whilst Prime saw little decrease in the amount of cheaters, the number of them in non-Prime is absurd. The first time I played a match with a non-Prime friend, one of our teammates got VAC'd within the first half, and a number of enemies were racking up a ridiculous nnumber of kills.

Prime also restricts those without a smartphone, and not only do they have to put up with cheaters but also game refusals from Primes who are afraid of deranking. I can imagine many players have left CS:GO as a result of not being able to become Prime or not knowing Prime exists.

On top of this, there is a clear loophole to the system - use a different phone number. Everybody has trusted family members who don't have a steam account, so why not use their phone for an alternate account? (I'm not approving of this by the way, just showing that there are easy ways to bypass the system.)

I understand that this "guide" has become more of a rant about something that doesn't really affect myself, but I hope I've been able to show how Prime has had a very negative effect on certain groups in the community, particularly those who have just started to play CS:GO. Hopefully Valve finds the time to re-evaluate the system in the future in order to improve the experience for non-Prime players as well - possibly by improving VAC in general.

~Sheepie