One new feature on a gaming keyboard and everyone loses their minds!
Could your gaming keyboard be considered cheating? According to some Counter-Strike, Overwatch and Valorant players: Hell yes. An ongoing debate in these game communities is whether a setting on some analogue gaming keyboards called last input priority SOCD, or 'Snap Tap' by Razer, is actually a big no-no or not.
This issue stems from this: tweaking SOCD might make you a better shot in competitive shooters. It also might make you harder to hit. It's most effective in Counter-Strike, for reasons we'll get to shortly. Though it can also be used to some benefit in Valorant and to run a pretty dirty tactic in Overwatch 2, involving a large degree of hitbox manipulation.
Let's talk CS, as it's a flash point for the SOCD debate. A technique called counter strafing is an important part of mastering competitive play in CS2.
It works like this: say I'm holding the A key to move to the left in CS2, when I release that key, I come to a stop. However, if I try to shoot during that transition my accuracy will be very low. So I'll need to wait a little longer to shoot, and at a higher level of competitive play, that's death. To increase my accuracy and response time, I could instead try holding the A key, and when I want to come to a halt, briefly hitting the D key. It might seem trivial but this will cut my movement time and hugely improve my accuracy. Importantly, this is all able to happen in the blink of an eye.
That's what's known as counter-strafing—and it's a tough skill to master in CS. Think of what happens if you mess it up: You hit A, then D, but you've not entirely let go of A yet. You come to a dead stop, as each key press cancels the other out, you're a sitting duck. Boom, dead.
So, what if I told you a gaming keyboard could take all the pain and 100s of hours of practising out of it? That's what SOCD offers.
AND NOW A QUESTION FOR THE VALORANT COMMUNITY
AS I UNDERSTAND, THIS FUNCTION WILL NOT WORK VERY MUCH IN OUR GAME, RIGHT?
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