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Faceit, ESEA or CEVO – What PUG service should You use?
Short answer: ESEA by a landslide! Read below to learn why.
We have all encountered hackers, flamers and other “toxic” players on the traditional CS:GO matchmaking system. If you are like me you probably expected more from the official matchmaking system and were disappointed by how many aim-botters slip through the valve anti-cheat system. When I finally made it to the global elite, I’ve had enough, even at that level of play people were aim-botting and I was interested in more “competitive” options such as the ESEA league.
So, I decided to try some of the 3rd party options available in the market and that’s when I stumbled upon ESEA, CEVO and FACEIT. These are the three major players in the market and I have used them for quite some time now. Here are my experiences with each of the services.
ESEA Review
My biggest problem with the official matchmaking service is the cheaters, that’s why I first turned to ESEA which is known for its state of the art anti-cheat system. ESEA’s anti-cheat is so good that I have never encountered a cheater playing 100’s of games on the platform. ESEA’s league is also a major plus and one of their biggest selling points. The ESEA league offers big money prizes and it’s one of the most competitive experiences you can have playing as a non-pro.
In addition, ESEA runs 128 tick servers which are even better than the official servers! I have never encountered any crashes or lags playing on their servers and I think the overall playing experience is flawless. Recruiting players for your team is also made easy using ESEA’s recruiting system.
ESEA does have some flaws which include the lack of a proper ladder and the extremely intrusive anti-cheat software. With that being said, these flaws are nothing compared the super enjoyable in-game experience, the ESEA league and the other competitive activities which are the best you can get as a non pro!
CEVO Review
CEVO is free to play and has some quite good 128 tick servers, it also features a decent client and a truly free-to-play experience. But, CEVO comes at the 3rd place for me because of its lack of the more advanced features you can find on the other platforms. There are no leagues you can play, No proper queues, no ladder system and people tend to throw matches because of the fact that CEVO is free to play.
All in all, I wouldn’t recommend using CEVO as it doesn’t really solve the problems in the traditional matchmaking and I don’t see a reason I would play the CEVO servers other than the fact they are free to play. That being said, CEVO is free to play and it can be a great introduction into the world of 3rd party CS GO servers. I highly recommend you to try CEVO for yourself and get used to their matchmaking system. Playing the CEVO servers can also be a great opportunity to play against better more invested players.
Faceit Review
I am kind of torn between ESEA and Faceit, ESEA is the more popular solution, however, Faceit features some of the great features from ESEA and more! Faceit has a proper ladder system and an overall enjoyable experience when in game. It also has one of the best freemium options in store and I really love playing it in the free-to-play model. But, unfortunately, Faceit has two big downsides: a very bad anti-cheat system and the servers are pretty laggy. There is also no proper client and you will find yourself frustrated with how hard it is to navigate the Faceit website.
For all of those reasons I still prefer ESEA even if Faceit has the superior Ladder system. In my opinion, a proper ladder system is a must have feature and we highly recommend you to pick Faceit if a ladder system is a must have for you too.
Verdict
As you can probably tell my clear winner is ESEA they are the most popular service for a reason. The server stability and overall in-game experience are extraordinary and the player base is super nice! ESEA simply offers the most features for the price. You can play casually or dive into the ESEA league and get your feet wet in the semi-pro world. I highly encourage you to try ESEA only after you have gained some experience in the normal ladder and are looking for the “next level” of play.
To finish I would like to thank you for reading this article, I hope you have learned something new and found the service that’s right for you!
