Game breaking CS:GO exploit gives players control of smoke grenades

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players have been left puzzled by a new in-game command that allows players to alter the shape of bloomed smoke grenades.

CS:GO has been the leader in the PC shooter market since its release back in August 2012. Valve’s popular title has gone from strength to strength with regular updates and changes to keep the game, and its esports scene, relatively fresh without upsetting the balance too much.

Yet, that could all be under threat after players unearthed a new in-game command that allows them to change how smoke and fire grenades work when they have been thrown, including changing shape and even disappearing off the screen completely.

Popular CS:GO community member DonHaci posted the findings to Twitter, such as a video showing off just how “game breaking” the uncovered command appeared to be, as players could alter grenades in each round of the match until it was over. 

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DonHaci dropped a smoke grenade and allowed it to pop, before moving left and right, making sure that their crosshair touched the edge of the bloomed smoke grenade. After a few seconds, the smoke cloud immediately began changing shape depending on

It wasn’t just the one occurrence, either. The Twitter user followed up with another smoke grenade on the Dust 2 map, showing that players with the command could – in theory – keep moving until they created the perfect one-way smoke, having a huge advantage over their opponents.

Is it just smoke grenades?

The command also appeared to work, to a much lesser extent, with spreading fire as it disappeared for a split second before returning back on screen. 

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While the flames didn’t disappear long enough for a player to burst through them completely, it would give a rushing opponent a significant advantage in maneuvering past the inferno and taking up better angles in matches.

Fans ultimately figured out that the command allowed the grenades to change so much because they are still reliant on the client side of the game, meaning they will appear differently for each player based on how they are thrown.

Will Valve push out an update?

Valve have yet to respond to the exploit-like findings, despite calls from the community for them to make a swift change – especially when it comes to making grenade outcomes server-side and not client-side.

While no one has had the ability to test the new discovery on a LAN server just yet, if the command does work there, the developers would have to spring into action so that it doesn’t have an effect on the competitive scene.