Even though Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) has been out for almost 11 years, it still sees between 1.5 and 1.8 million players during peak online hours! If you’re a gamer with legendary CSGO skills from a decade’s experience, most of those people feel like noobs. That’s where using a matchmaking server can enhance your experience in various ways.
ESEA and FACEIT are two of the top matchmaking servers around, but which one should you choose? Today we will break down the ESEA vs FACEIT debate so that you can make the best decision for your competitive CSGO experience moving forward.
Player Count
The first thing to go over is how many people are playing CSGO on either of these private servers. A larger player count will not only give you a wider variety of players and shorter waiting periods in the lobby, but it also gives you more opportunities to better your skill by adapting to different players. This ultimately makes ranking up in CSGO go quicker.
FACEIT has a much larger player base because it’s more popular. You’re much more likely to find players on your level quickly playing on FACEIT than you are with ESEA. In fact, the disparity in skill level in the average ESEA match is sometimes so bad that ESEA players (primarily those on the European servers) openly leave for other leagues or openly demand change from ESEA.
FACEIT also has a ladder system that ranks and rewards players. This further contributes to better match-ups in ranked CSGO.
Latency
Your proximity to the server is going to determine your ping and the strength of your connection. ESEA and FACEIT both have comparably robust servers, and the quality of the connection isn’t going to change your experience that much unless you’re a top-level player.
However, FACEIT has very few servers in North America, which makes it difficult for North American gamers to use. For this reason, American gamers much prefer ESEA servers because it’s easier for them to find a North American server to join.
This fact doesn’t make one service worse than the other automatically; this factor will depend on where you get better ping (Europe or North America). It’s also good to keep this in mind if you prefer playing with a specific demographic.
Dealing With Cheaters
The default CSGO servers have a massive cheating problem. It’s so bad that Valve has taken a back seat to the cheating problem and essentially leaves it up to the community to report cheaters. Many publications have also thrown up their arms and are now relying on convincing people that cheating isn’t fun.
ESEA and FACEIT deal with cheaters in two different ways. The first thing that deters most cheaters is that these are paid services.
Most cheaters aren’t even willing to take the time to grind in a free-to-play game. They definitely aren’t going to pay for the standard or elite services on these servers.
Still, every now and then, a cheater will sign up and slip through the cracks. This is where ESEA outshines FACEIT, but not because their anti-cheat system is much better. ESEA’s system picks up on cheating quicker because the player base is smaller, so the system has fewer players to pick through before it finds a cheater.
Toxic Players
Ever since CSGO went free to play, Valve has tried to keep its default lobby as friendly as possible. However, there’s only so much Valve can do before they start cutting into the player base’s fun and its image as a company. Third-party services don’t have to worry because people know part of their job is to weed out toxicity.
A player will still experience a little toxicity with either service, especially if they go solo. However, because these are paid services with their own community guidelines, the toxicity levels aren’t nearly as high.
The best experience in this regard is to be found on FACEIT. They’re not “better” at combatting toxicity, but they do offer players the ability to form little communities of like-minded individuals.
FACEIT gives its player base a better platform to connect and make friends overall, which means solo players don’t have to stay alone forever. You’ll also be able to trade CSGO cases with more people.
Pricing
ESEA’s open price is just under $10 per month, and it gets progressively more expensive the more you advance. FACEIT Premium allows you all the benefits with one easy-to-buy plan (which is much cheaper for advanced players).
ESEA vs FACEIT Discussion Results
Because the differences between these matchmaking servers exist across five dimensions, many different permutations will affect the individual’s final choice. However, there are general concerns that are more important to most competitive gamers that can help us make the last call in this debate.
Most gamers get an innate kick out of the thought that there are thousands or even hundreds of thousands of other players online. The wide variety of the base, which you’ll find on FACEIT, makes every game feel different. They also both have comparable anti-cheat systems, but ESEA’s approach works better because it has less work to do.
Therefore, if you’re in North America, you can pay, and getting the best possible ping is important to you, then ESEA is probably best for you. However, if you’re literally anyone else, then you’ll find that FACEIT runs a better private matchmaking service for competitive CSGO players.
Take Your Gaming to the Next Level
FACEIT and ESEA both run third-party servers that are superior to Valve’s default servers. However, if we have to pick a winner in the ESEA vs FACEIT match-up, then it has to be FACEIT.
FACEIT caters to a wider range of gamers. It’s the cheaper option, it’s stable enough (unless you get really low ping in North America), and it deals with cheating and toxicity about as well as ESEA does.
For a better CSGO experience, join a private server today. If you want to upgrade your life in more ways, then check out some of our other lifestyle blogs.
