- The exploit allowed players to throw Molotovs and incendiaries very far
- It was a controversial exploit in the wider professional community
- It was used extensively in pro plays on maps like Anubis
Despite players using the Magic Molotov glitch a lot and even tournament organizers allowing the exploit, Valve decided to remove it in the latest CS:GO patch.
How Did the Glitch Work?
Molotov cocktails and incendiary grenades in CS:GO have long suffered from a peculiar game-breaking bug that allows them to fly longer than their intended two-second length. Dubbed “the magic Molotov” glitch, it occurs when an incendiary grenade or Molotov passed over a 2D skybox at the same time that it was due to explode. This causes them to continue flying indefinitely as they are coded to not explode over or on a 2D skybox.
Savvy players can abuse this bug to get an advantage on many maps and this also extends to competitive and professional play. The exploit has been seen at the pro level on Ancient, where Terrorists could molly middle — outside of donut — almost immediately from their spawn. This forced CTs to either waste a smoke instantly or attempt to contest middle from less comfortable angles.
What Did the Community Think About It?
A bug like this obviously has much potential and professional players and tournament organizers alike debated whether it should be allowed or not. Many opted for the former, with the ESL even explicitly allowing the bug to be used as stated in their rulebook, which says that “so-called “infinite” grenade distance throws” can be used.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest CS:GO tournament organizers, BLAST, enforced a ban on the exploit in September 2021. This caused confusion as many teams were not aware of this ban initially and were used to using the glitch during their training and other games. BLAST eventually re-allowed the glitch to be used in their tournaments.
The problem reared its head again when Anubis was added to the competitive rotation. The map had multiple ways to exploit the bug with some big names like Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev speaking about this. “I actually like Anubis and my teammates love this map as well, but Valve should fix a lot of bugs, like a lot,” the Ukrainian sniper said.
“There are around 15 molotovs that you can throw on the whole map, and I think teams like Heroic or Outsiders will do some interesting strats. There are a lot of molotovs like the Ancient one and it's weird because in some tournaments they can ban these, but at BLAST they were always allowed.”However, Valve finally decided to remove the exploit, stating in their patch notes for the latest CS:GO update that they have “fixed Molotov and Incendiary grenades not detonating in midair when flying over skybox areas”. It remains to be seen if tournament organizers and players will be all right with that change.
