A former Counter-Strike and Valorant pro has learned why it’s better not to throw away the keys to old games, even after a dozen years.
Bradley “Android” Fodor has no reason to celebrate the announcement of Counter-Strike 2. previous CS: RI there value pro has lost a Steam account with valuable content, and to recover it requires an activation key that is over 15 years old. At least that’s what the Valve employees who handled Fodor’s case (via Blood).
Where did the old Steam key go?
Fodor made an error while editing data on Steam. March 23 the Canadian player changed their phone number, but forgot to disable account authentication before doing so. As a result, the former professional lost access to the account, where he had, among other things, unique emblems and stickers, rewards for reaching the quarter-finals of the 2018 FACEIT London Major tournament with the Complexity team.
Of course, Fodor immediately writing to Steam Technical Support with a request to regain access to the account. However, Valve representatives acknowledged that the age and value of the account required the user to submit a photo of the CD key used to register the account. Nor could it be the string itself, but necessarily a photograph or scanned image of the code.
in despair “Android” sent Valve your contact information, including your passport, debit card information, and driver’s license. No success: Steam support insists on sending in a CD key, which was probably thrown away years ago. A suggestion to send a birth certificate was also rejected.
Valve is causing problems because the account is too valuable
Interestingly, another former pro (and now Valorant trainer), Nikola “Legija” Ninic, claims that in a similar situation, Valve did not cause him such problems. All he had to do was mention his participation in tournaments and “his own stickers” and provide his Steam ID to Valve to restore access to his account and apologize for the problems. Apparently, the contents of the “Android” profile are much more valuable.
Android will not play CS 2 at this time, source: Valve Corporation.
Other netizens (via Reddit, Steam, and Twitter) criticize Valve or cite other ways for Fodor to recover his account. Some of them would probably do you more harm than good (including Photo editing or sue Valve), and others have apparently already failed (e.g. providing debit card details or PayPal account statements used for Steam purchases).
The only safe and (perhaps) effective advice is, in short, to recommend perseverance and further contact with Steam support. Preferably until you meet a “nicer” employee.
The situation is all the more painful because Valve has granted access to beta testing of SC 2 to all players who have played in major tournaments (including some player banned on steam; via Ido “ido_valve” Magal on Reddit). Fodor can only hope that he can quickly recover his account and join the beta before the release of Counter-Strike 2.
Perhaps input from people associated with the competitive CSGO scene will help, including jerome cutfounder and president of the organization Prodigy Agency.
More for you:
- Counter-Strike 2 finally officially announced! – Watch the videos!
- Counter Strike 2 can go further in the fight against cheaters
Passionate about video games (and others) for years, he completed an MBA in linguistics, defending a thesis on games. He started his adventure with GlobeLiveMedia in 2015, writing in the editorial department, then also covering movies and oh, horror! – technology (also a contributor to the Games Encyclopedia). He started with platform games, which he still loves (including metroidvania), but he also likes card games (including “analog” games), fighting games, soul games and virtually any other kind of game. Don’t ask about the graphics: after a few hours of exposure, you can revel in pixelated game characters reminiscent of the days of the Game Boy era (if not older).
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