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Counter Strike: Global Offensive – How to Get Overwatch

Get those Walls out of here!
This article is over 9 years old and may contain outdated information

In Counter Strike: Global Offensive, there is a system in place that allows the game’s members to view past matches in an effort to root out players accused of “disruptive behavior,” such as hacking, called Overwatch. However, not all players are given the ability to do this. In fact, to become an Overwatch Investigator, you’ll have to meet a few requirements.

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The first, and most important, facet to gaining access to Overwatch is that you must have a near spotless record in CS:GO. You can’t have any previous VAC bans and you mustn’t have had many accusations place upon you. You must also be very active in CS:GO in order to achieve Overwatch, which means playing the game regularly. Similar to this, players will generally need a certain number of hours played under their belts before they are considered, though the number of hours can drastically vary based on the other requirements. However, it is safe to assume having over 200+ hours will put you in the green.

Because Overwatch affects competitive play, you’ll also need a certain number of competitive wins on your record. As with hours played, this can vary, though to a much lesser degree. 150 competitive wins seems to be the minimum, although it is likely to go up more towards 180-200 wins. Account age and skill group are also taken into consideration, so newly formed accounts and players in the Silver group aren’t very likely to enter the Overwatch program.

You’ll know once you become an Overwatch Investigator as CS:GO will prompt you that you have a pending case to view at the top of the game’s main menu screen. By clicking on it, a recorded match will be loaded and it will be up to you whether or not the suspected player is guilty of any convictions. From then on you’ll often receive cases to view, but don’t worry if you don’t get to them, as you can’t lose Overwatch by not viewing cases, only if your Skill Group rank falls low enough or you don’t partake in competitive matches for a very long time.


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Author
Image of Alex Neeler
Alex Neeler
Alex was a freelance writer for Twinfinite from 2016 through until 2018, based in the Rhode Island area. You'll usually catch him overplaying his hand in Hearthstone or wearing a Nightwing t-shirt. Often both at once. Find him on Twitter at @AlexanderNeeler!