‘Stop crying’: Confusion as CS2 ‘refund bug’ is permitted, then banned at PGL Astana

Tournament organizer PGL has declared a ban on a CS2 "refund bug" that was used during this week's PGL Astana tournament. But there's been some confusion among fans and players after the bug was initially declared legal by admins.

The news comes via ODDIK's Adriano "WOOD7" Cerato, who had the scout buy and sell bug used against him at the BLAST Austin Major qualifiers in April. He confirmed he had permission to use the strategy here in Astana, but after his match wrapped, he was told it was no longer permitted.

The play was seen in the third round match between ODDIK and G2 on Dust 2. ODDIK players purchased scouts on an eco round and threw them to players with forward spawns. They peeked mid and looked for a quick kill, dealing a little damage, before returning to spawn and throwing the scouts back to their buyers who sold them.

Players have a small 30 second buffer to buy and sell items in spawn before the round begins, but the player that bought them must be the one who sells to get the money spent back. In this case, the players without a good spawn bought the weapons then remained in spawn.

The round didn't surmount to much. ODDIK with pistols was unable to capitalize on the damage dealt, and G2 won the round. G2 went on to win the map 13-3, so the buy was inconsequential.

But the strategy didn't go unnoticed with commentators Jason "moses" O'Toole and Adam "Dinko" Hawthorne divided over the mechanic.

As clips of the "bug" made their way around the community, WOOD7 responded on X/Twitter that he had checked and cleared the use of the strategy with PGL admins, adding that it was used against him by Imperial in the Austin Major qualifiers.

"This is not a bug and is allowed by the PGL organization," WOOD7 said. "We confirmed it before using it, stop crying."

However, after consideration from PGL admins, the strategy has now been banned. "They just banned refound [sic], unfortunately I had another cool Deagle move up my sleeve that I won't be able to use," WOOD7 said after ODDIK's win over G2.

Explicitly, selling a weapon early in a round isn't a bug, but perhaps it's something Valve may want to consider as the Austin Major approaches. Given the feature doesn't work if it's the same player who buys and fires the weapon — the two must be separate — it certainly doesn't seem intended.

PGL Astana continues today as the road to Austin heats up. For more CS2 news stay tuned to esports.gg.