Disclaimer: this article represents the opinion of the writer and does not represent the opinion of Team Dignitas or our pro athletes. We advice you to try all services out and make your own opinion!

If you're like me, you get annoyed of Valve's matchmaking pretty quickly. Either because of the high amount of cheaters or the fact that the servers provided by Valve feel terrible. However, there are other options available to you. If you just want a better experience with playing Counter-Strike or if you're looking to play against better opponents to hone your skills, using a Third-Party website is probably better in the long run, even if it does cost money. There are three main websites that are used and that the majority of people play on. These are: ESEA, CEVO and FaceIt. All of them have servers around the globe for you to play on and all of them have the Holy Grail that is 128 tick.

With this article I will explain how each of these services work with the features, pros, cons and which is the best overall. I will get started with ESEA, a downloadable PUG client originating in the USA.

ESEA 

Getting started with ESEA is very easy. The first thing you have to do is make an account on their website which takes 5 minutes. Then you have to download their Client onto your computer, this client is so it has all of the servers that ESEA provides and usage of their matchmaking system all in one place, making it easier for you to play. There's a catch with ESEA however, this is the fact that you have to pay to use their services. The price is a measly $5.99 a month which gives you access to a majority of different features. With the basic Premium pass, you unlock access to their servers which also features their wonderful anti-cheat client. If you have no idea how good ESEA's anti-cheat software is, Valve requested help from them which resulted in a few professional players receiving a VAC ban. You can also sign up for their Leagues which feature money prizes. There are a few other features but none of these really matter if you just want to play PUGs.

Recently ESEA have launched a big update to their systems, this update includes some nice new features. ESEA implemented an ELO system onto their servers. This means that when you are searching for a game on their matchmaking like system, you will be matches with players that have around the same ELO as you, making PUGs fair and more of a challenge. You also get placed into their new ranking system with S rank being the highest, which is supposedly only achieved by professional players and D being the lowest. ESEA has a second tier of purchase as well, this tier is called 'ESEA Insider' and cost $14.95 per month. You get more exciting items with the perk of being an Insider. You receive reserved slots to 'Fragshack' servers which are perfect for death match and aim training. You also get access to a part of their forum in which you can talk with pro players. Another interesting thing you receive is a free gift code to give your friends one month of ESEA premium for free.

ESEA's matchmaking selection screen.

With this comes the pros and the cons of using ESEA, this is what really matters.

Pros:

1. Matchmaking system places you in matches with players that have a similar ELO rank, making games fair and more of a challenge.
2. ESEA has the best anti-cheat out there so you can trust them not to put a cheater into your match.
3. In my opinion, the best servers out of the three PUG services. High quality and it feels like if you miss, it's your fault and not the server's.
4. Easy to use client which makes finding games nice and easy.
5. Because of the cost there will be hardly any leavers or people that go AFK mid-game.
6. Free and easy scrim setup.

Cons:

1. Cost money to play on any servers.
2. Intrusive client, it constantly scans your PC and some people may not like this. It scans your PC for cheats and injected software but some people don't agree with this. I personally have no problem with it because it makes sure the games are cheat free.

CEVO 

Another client originating in the USA, this client has many different features which may or may not be of use to you. Similar to ESEA it's very easy to sign up with CEVO, you just sign up from their homepage and make your account. Once you've made your account you should be prompted to download the client onto your computer. The client has improved a lot over the years, making it easy to use and nice to look at. CEVO provides free PUG services to all users. Like ESEA you can pay for premium services. This gives you access to premium servers and some other content that's quite nifty when looking at improving your game. For just $4.99 a month you get access to all of the features that CEVO provides to you. An example of this is when you vote for a map it gets counted twice, so your map pick has a higher chance to be voted in.

You also get a chance to be a 'PUG moderator'. What this means is that you can kick people who are being toxic in-game at your own discretion, you cannot abuse this however as kicks can be appealed and CEVO does look into the appeals. You also get unlimited access to their scrim service, you sign up as a team and can battle against other teams very easily making practice a lot easier. You also get access to 'CEVO In-Sight' which gives in-detail statistics, helping you to improve your game. CEVO have recently added a new ranking system to their servers which gives you one of 10 ranks. These ranks mean that when you use their new party matchmaking system you get placed in a server with people with a similar rank as yours. However, their system is still in place where you have to wait in a server for 10 people to join. There is also still a paywall behind this and you need MVP to have a rank and use their party system. These two things are both new features to CEVO and they will surely improve the system once more players are buying their premium services.

The CEVO client on the PUG selection screen.

Pros:

1. Free servers which allow you to join and play PUG matches without having to pay.
2. Easy-access scrim service. You can create and join scrims very easily which makes practicing as a team a lot easier.
3. 'CEVO In-Sight' shows in-depth details about your stats and skills.
4. Ranks and Party system if you purchase their premium services.

Cons:

1. When joining a PUG you have to wait for people to join which can take a long time, meaning you may have more time waiting than actually playing the game.
3. The anti-cheat is mediocre and the servers are free, meaning cheaters can come in as they wish.
4. Because it's free and people don't care about getting banned, if they start losing a game or get annoyed they'll just quit because there are little to no consequences for it.

FaceIt 

Coming from the UK, FaceIt looked to change the way PUGs were played. FaceIt is the easiest to setup and make an account for. You simply make an account, add your Steam ID then you're ready to play. There's no client that you need to download which makes it easy to get into a PUG and start playing. FaceIt is also completely free like CEVO but alas, there is a paid service as well. Their premium service costs $7.43 each month for the base package, titled 'unlimited'. Purchasing this means you get access to a lot more than a free user does. The best thing you receive is the fact that you can access their ladder system, this puts you in a rank and gives you an incentive to level up and play more. It's similar to ESEA in the fact that you get given a rank and then can level up your ELO to achieve the next rank. With FaceIt though, you can earn their currency called 'FaceIt Points'. With these points you can redeem things from their store such as weapon skins, pro jerseys and mousepads. You earn this currency through playing FaceIt cups which are like mini tournaments held every day for users to enter. If you purchase 'Unlimited' you can play an unlimited number of these cups. However for the more expensive 'FaceIt Premium', you can play in Premium cups which reward more 'FaceIt Points'. You can also earn these points from gaining points in the ladders and coming in the top 10.

With their Unlimited service, you also gain access to better servers, meaning you can hit shots and get a better experience with players overall. There is a big downfall to FaceIt, however, and that's the fact that if you're a free user there are lots of cheaters in games. They can just join at will and cheat without any consequences. As an example, in a recent Qualifier held for 'DreamHack Malmö', a team that had two cheaters in it advanced to the semi-final before they got caught. This was after they beat multiple professional teams. Their anti-cheat also has a sort of ghosting system that means players pop in and out if they are fast peeking corners. This makes it very frustrating when trying to shoot at people because according to the server, they aren't even there. With FaceIt's premium option you gain a little bit more than Unlimited, but for a larger sum of $11.99 per month. You get unlimited access to Premium tournaments with a higher prize pool and access to 'FaceIt Premium Prizes'. This basically means that you can redeem better things from their store and get more prizes for competing in premium ladders.

The FaceIt website on the matchmaking screen

Pros:

1. Ladder system that means you can compete for prizes and prize money.
2. ELO system that places you with people in a similar ELO to you, causing balanced matches.
3. Matchmaking which finds 10 people for you, instead of you having to wait for 9 other people.
4. No client so it's easier for users who don't want to download something in-order to play. (Subjective)

Cons:

1. Poor server performance, often laggy and jitters a lot.
2. Bad anti-cheat, rampant cheaters can ruin games and the ghosting system makes playing games irritating at times.
3. The original website is very poorly designed leaving it hard for first time users to actually find out what to do. However,, their beta website is fixing these issues.
4. AFK and leavers in free games because there is little to no punishment for these actions.

Conclusion

With that all said which one is actually worth your money at the end of the day? In my opinion and, this is strictly my opinion, ESEA is the best offer you can go with. Their servers are the best of the best as is their anti-cheat software. Even though their client is quite intrusive, it doesn't do anything malicious to your computer. FaceIt comes a close second, mainly because of the prizes. You can earn money and even get the amount that you spent on your membership back through just playing the game, but their servers are sub-par and can sometimes feel like garbage when trying to play. CEVO comes in last place. Their premium membership is the cheapest out of the three, but once their new matchmaking and ranking system is improved they could well move up on the chart. However, their scrim service is excellent and if you wish to build your team and use strats it's the only thing I'd recommend it for. The best free service is up to you to decide. FaceIt has Matchmaking making it so you find 10 men instantly but the servers are bad and cheaters run rampant but CEVO can leave you waiting for people to join for up to 30 minutes and the game can be incredibly unbalanced. However, for the true Counter-Strike experience, ESEA is where you're going to want to throw your money.

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