Sometimes, matchmaking can be a little bit too much. People can be screaming and shouting at you for not hitting one taps that are impossible to land. They can also be yelling at you for no apparent reason. Verbal abuse, blocking you in game, team killing, it really just isn’t fun sometimes. And a good portion of the time, you can’t even help it. This is why people resort to using different PUG platforms. If you’re around MG2 or above, then using a separate PUG platform isn’t a terrible idea!

But, where do you actually begin? Since there’s so many different services, it can be fairly confusing to someone who’s new to things other than matchmaking. Don’t fret through, this guide should clear up a few of your questions, and give you some insightful information to find out what you need to know.

FACEIT

Introduction: FACEIT provides pick-up games for you and your friends completely free of charge. It's fairly quick and easy to set up a profile and get playing on their servers, and also allows users to play in certain tournaments with their friends and teammates. It also allows you to queue fairly, with an ELO system built into the platform. Whilst it may seem a little bit unfair at first, more time playing will let the system find out where you should be placed and what level you should be playing at.

Pros: It's free! You and your friends can sign up with no limit whatsoever. You can play in certain tournaments for absolutely free, and if you subscribe to their premium version, you can play in special tournaments, win certain prizes, and get a lot of free stuff if you can show your skill. You don't even have to play in a tournament for this, you can just PUG and achieve a high rank to get things such as FACEIT points or even knives. FACEIT points are redeemable on their store for things such as server rentals, FACEIT merch, eSports gear, etc. The list goes on. Did I mention the FIAT 500?

You also get to ban out certain maps and servers, similar to how tournaments are ran, even for just basic PUG's. This is personally my favourite feature of mine, because if you don't really know what to queue, but don't want to play Dust2, your captain (that could be you) can just ban out the maps your team doesn't want to play. Another nifty feature is that if you're bored of CS for the day but wanna go play some Overwatch, you can queue that on FACEIT too. Including WoT, SMITE, DOTA2 and more.

Cons: It's free! Because of the fact that you and your friends can sign up with pretty much no hassle, you're not going to be guaranteed a game of people speaking your language. This is sadly only for the free version too. If you play FACEIT on the premium queue, you can end up waiting a lot longer just to find a game. Some of the other issues on FACEIT is that the servers it uses are known for being slightly sub-par, however they are still better than matchmaking servers.

Another issue people bring up is that the anticheat is fairly poor, as it's serverside and not clientside. This is an issue, but it's still more efficient than VAC, and more convenient for the user. Just remember to report people if you think they're being suspicious or if they're being abusive, just as if it was on matchmaking. It's also nowhere near as popular in NA as it is in EU. Finally, the one thing that causes a lot of people issues is that you get a lot more leavers in FACEIT due to the fact that the penalty isn't really there, considering it's free. The premium queue is a little different, with a lot less leavers.

CEVO

Introduction: CEVO, partnered with altPUG, is a PUG client that is a little bit different to the others. While free, it's nowhere near the same as FACEIT. You have to register on the site, then download a client which serves as a multipurpose tool. It's your anticheat, and also your server browser / finder. This is where it's different to what you're probably used to if you're new to using external PUG clients. You have to find a server, then wait for other users to join, instead of queuing and then waiting for other users to accept or confirm they're ready to play. You can also do plenty of other things in the client, such as setting up scrims or 10 mans for example.

Pros: Free as anything. The same as FACEIT, there's a premium option which gives you a whole new set of features, such as detailed statistical analysis, a better post-match scoreboard with things such as how many 1VSX clutches you've won, etc.. Scrims are very easy to set up through the system too, and you can find a team a lot easier with CEVO's forum if that's what you're looking for. PUG's are also protected by a better anticheat, and whilst it's not perfect, it's built into the client anyways, similar to how VAC works.

The skill level of players is also higher, and once you develop an idea of what efficacy you're at (the system will do that for you, it's similar to ESEA's RWS if you're familiar with that). The system will tell that for you, if you look around. It might take a couple of games to average out, but once it does, you can find a PUG which is around your skill level when looking around in the server browser. You're also going to find a lot less leavers than FACEIT, or at least from my experience on the service.

Cons: The cons with CEVO are very similar to FACEIT, considering it's free. However, because of the slightly longer waiting times to find games, and because of the process of finding a game, players have less of an incentive to just leave with no consequence. Another issue is that there is nothing that stops players of say 18 Efficacy playing with people around the 8-10 mark because of how their PUG system works. It's also very difficult to find an MVP (premium) game compared to FACEIT.

ESEA

Introduction: ESEA is probably the most known of the PUG services. The reasons people have heard of it vary, from being a popular premium PUG service with skilled players, to it also being a fairly toxic place with people who think they're slightly better than they actually are. Whatever you hear about it may change your opinion, but many people say different things about the service. My personal advice, from using it myself, is for you to try it yourself. There's plenty of places to find trial codes if you look around, some people give them out daily, including Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert's mom! Look around, or if you're willing, pay and try a month yourself. Something that many people can agree on however, is that ESEA servers are some of the best in the industry.

Pros: Where to begin? There's multiple different things that ESEA has to offer that other services don't. The players are at a higher skill level than you find in matchmaking, and now it has its own ranking system, so you shouldn't come across someone who's going to destroy your team constantly. Hence the title, you do have the ability to play with the pros. I personally have played with karrigan and apEX, and there's no catch to this. Just queue like you would normally, and you can come across these players every now and then.

ESEA also hosts a large competitive part of their service, including scrims, seasons (whilst FACEIT and CEVO do have events / seasons, they're not as well done as ESEA's) and even host AMA's with professional players in their personal voice chat you can find built into the client. Whilst this is limited to Insider users, it's a cool feature. The PUG's are great too, allowing you to show off your skill against highly competitive opponents. Because everyone on their is paying for a premium service, they don't want to lose games. They don't want to leave, so having a leaver in ESEA is pretty damn rare!

Cons: You probably know of one of the cons from the famous Bitcoin scandal, but there's many other reasons besides not knowing what their client could be doing to your computer (don't worry too much, the anticheat that comes with it is brilliant). The players are, not all the time, toxic. Voice communication happens a lot more, but if you're not performing to a good level in their eyes, you're likely to be shouted at or something similar. This happens anywhere else you play usually, but just remember that everyone has a bad day, even them. So don't worry about these kind of people, remember that you can rate them as a negative player after the game, limiting their karma.

Another problem is that the RWS system causes players to play in more aggressive ways. The RWS system, if you don't know it (Round Winning Shares) is famous for rewarding aggressive, risky plays. This usually means that some people won't play as a team, and will only play to increase their RWS. The worst part? If that person loses you a round, but you've managed to hold off a site and kill 3 different enemies with just a pistol, you get no reward for that. Nothing. It comes up as kills on the scoreboard, but no RWS will be rewarded on your behalf. This is a major issue with the system that's been pointed out many times, as people worry more about their RWS rather than actually improving as a player sometimes.

Conclusion

External PUG clients that don't use Valve's own Matchmaking are extremely different experiences to that you find on MM. What I've summed up in this guide are what I personally feel are they key aspects for players who don't know where to go from matchmaking. However, this doesn't cover anything. My personal advice for Counter-Strike players out there is to try all these different platforms yourself, see how the different communities feel for you. What kind of system works best, ESEA's RWS or FACEIT's simple win or loss system? Neither is better or worse, because it depends on the players needs / desires from a PUG service. Finally, to finish this off, remember to be friendly to people when playing CS no matter what platform you're on. We all have bad days, there's no helping it, so don't expect players to become gods just because they're on another service. Just have fun!

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