Valve started kicking free-to-play players from ranked in CS:GO in order to combat cheaters and other unsavoury types.
Abusing a free-to-play system in a competitive environment is nothing new in the world of gaming. When a person would get banned for cheating or toxicity, they could just create a new account and do it all over again without proper punishment to talk about. If their money is on the line, however, shutting down a paid account can sometimes be a proper deterrent.
This is why player bases across numerous free to play titles are hoping their games will have a barrier tied to real-life money and that's exactly what Valve is doing with CS:GO.
From June 4, 2021, onwards, only players with Prime status will be able to play ranked , have skill groups and access to drops. This way, in order to cheat in ranked, the bad actors will have to put their money on the line.
That said, it remains to be seen how effective this precaution will be since cheaters often tend to have more money than sense. After all, one doesn't build a 77 million dollar empire if people don't keep throwing money at them.
Counter-Strike GO: Operation Hydra
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Valorant cheats were observed to over $200 but the size of the required "investment" also depends on how hard it is to bypass a game's anti-cheat.
