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Overwatch is a player-driven cheat jurisdiction process featured in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Working in tandem with Valve Anti-Cheat, Overwatch selects experienced and trusted players to become Investigators, who review demos of games with suspected cheaters, and come to a verdict on whether or not the suspected player had cheated. If the investigators conclude that the player is cheating or otherwise harming the gameplay for other players beyond a reasonable doubt, punishments such as game bans will be made towards the suspected player. Players who have unlocked the Overwatch feature will not be able to use it if the player has their competitive rank hidden due to inactivity, they must get a rank to access it again. As of the March 22, 2023 update, Overwatch has been removed from the game but the patch notes did not mention its removal.[1]
Process
When a player reports another player for possible cheating, the information is sent to an automated coordinator at Valve. The coordinator sees all the reports and chooses a game with a possible cheater and sends its demo to a group of Investigators for them to judge.
When the demo is sent out, Investigators will receive a notification on the main menu of the pending case. The Investigators can then download and review the demo through a limited version of the normal Spectator demo view. The view is restricted to the first-person view of the suspected player, dubbed "The Suspect", and automatically fast-forwards to the next round when the Suspect dies in the current round.
To protect player identities, all players, including "The Suspect", will have their names altered into generic names. Their avatars will be replaced with default T and CT icons. Chat and voice chat records are unavailable, and name tags for changed weapon names are not visible.
After watching 8 rounds of play, the Investigator decides whether the Suspect is guilty of the accused infraction. If the collective group of Investigators believe "The Suspect" to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the suspect player will be banned from Valve servers (permanently for cheating or a month for griefing).
As of the June 10, 2015 update, players who participate in overwatch and submit enough reports also receive XP towards the player's profile rank. The player will be notified of the reward and receive the reward XP after completing a match on an official server.
Verdict
When Investigators have reviewed the replay, the will be given a resolution checkbox with four different disruptions:
- Aim Assistance (Aimbot, Triggerbot, Silent Aim, etc.)
- Vision Assistance (Wallhack, Smoke and flash bypass, etc.)
- Other External Assistance (Auto-bhop, Anti-aim, Backtracking, fakelag, etc.)
- Griefing (Damaging or killing teammates, deliberately lose games, etc.)
For each of the four disruptions, the Investigator can either conclude "Insufficient Evidence" or "Evident Beyond a Reasonable Doubt".
If The Suspect is banned for griefing, they will receive a Global Cooldown for up to 6 weeks.
If The Suspect is banned for anything else, they will receive a permanent Global Cooldown.
Bugs
- When reviewing an Overwatch case, opening "Inventory" causes all items' quality/rarity to be changed to "default".
- When reviewing an Overwatch case, sometimes Game UI elements (e.g. Health points, Armour, Ammo) can be hidden.
- The [ESC] key will not function to bring up the UI elements.
- If the Suspect throws a grenade while the investigator holds the follow grenade key (default: Ctrl), the Overwatch case will immediately fast forward to the next round.
- Reviewing an Overwatch case directly after playing on a Community Server may result in all players' X-ray outlines being red as opposed to their usual blue and yellow colors for CTs and Ts respectively.
Behind the scenes
- File with overwach cases is named 'myassignedcase.evidence' and using unique extension
.evidence
.- Player can use
demoui
tool (or with the key combination:Shift
- Player can use
+
) to manipulate the case like a "demo".
Gallery
Scaleform UI
Panorama UI
External Links
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive » CS:GO Overwatch FAQ
- GDC 2018: John McDonald (Valve) - Using Deep Learning to Combat Cheating in CSGO
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