Valve announced on Friday that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's competitive matches will no longer be free going forward. In order for a player to participate in CS:GO's legendary competitive ladder, they will now have to pay $15.00 USD for CS:GO's Prime matchmaking service. In addition to locking competitive behind a Prime Status, Valve also removed the ability to earn prime match-making through gameplay.

The move to lock the ladder behind the Prime Status paywall will both add a new source of revenue for Valve, while at the same time addressing the ongoing cheating issues on the competitive ladder.

"Along with all the gameplay that we made available for free, new players had access to drops, Ranks, Skill Groups, and a free path to Prime matchmaking," Valve explained. "Unfortunately, over time, those benefits have become an incentive for bad actors to hurt the experience of both new and existing players. So today we’re revising the offering for new players. New players can still play every game mode, play on community servers, and play workshop maps. However, they will no longer receive XP, Ranks, drops, or Skill Groups; those features are now exclusively available to Prime Status players."

While free-to-play members can no longer access competitive matchmaking, they added an unranked 5v5 mode, as well as unranked wingman and Dangerzone modes.

"When new players play Competitive, Wingman, and Danger Zone, their matches will still use skill-based matchmaking, but players will not earn a Skill Group," Valve said. "Prime players can also play Unranked matches, where their Skill Group will not be affected and where there are no lobby Skill Group restrictions."