Your Mechanical Keyboard Can Get You Kicked From Games (If You Turn This Feature On)

Mechanical keyboards are amazing for a range of uses, especially gaming. But a new range of mechanical keyboards is creating issues for gamers, particularly one new feature: Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions (SOCD).

Using this new feature has seen multiple gamers kicked from online games such as Counter-Strike 2, with Valve making it clear it won’t stand for the enhanced mechanical keyboard inputs.

What Is SOCD and Why Is It a Problem?

SOCD is the ability for a keyboard to interpret two separate presses, using its programming to favor the last input. For most folks, that means your last input while typing will be picked up and inserted into your text.

However, for competitive gamers in titles like CS2, Overwatch, Valorant, and so on, the rise of keyboards with SOCD support is causing enormous problems, giving gamers with certain keyboards a distinct advantage.

In short, SOCD can increase your shooting accuracy while also making it more difficult to be hit. It sounds like an absolute win (and it has been for many), but the level of automation delivered through the mechanical keyboard programming creates an unfair advantage.

Although Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions tech has existed for a while (it’s used in fighting games, Razer’s Huntsman V3 Pro mechanical keyboard was the first to bring it to a wider audience, using the catchy name “Snap Tap.” Legendary keyboard manufacturer Wooting rapidly followed suit with the equally catchy “Snappy Tappy,” but both are iterations of the same tech.

Why Switching On This Keyboard Tech Will Get You Kicked From Online Games

In competitive shooters, SOCD gives a small but significant boost to movement. When you strafe to avoid fire in an FPS, your ability to accurately return fire is lowered.

When you release the key you’re pressing to strafe, your character comes to a stop, and the accuracy is lowered further. However, pressing another direction key can counteract that, increasing your accuracy and response time.

Practicing this precision key combination is a vital skill for high-level FPS players and one that can take years to learn properly. Because if you get the key combination wrong or one registers before the other, you’re likely to get taken down.

Mechanical keyboards with SOCD-enabled use their programming to automatically detect the last input, canceling out any issues arising from an accidental press, slow input, and so on. So, in high-pressure competitive gaming situations, it creates an advantage.

The keyboard manufacturers are pulling no punches about the tech, either; It’s quite refreshing. After Razer launched its version, Wooting put out a poll asking its users whether it should also add the tech.

It was overwhelmingly positive, and Wooting immediately added Snappy Tappy. But the Wooting X account also provided a lengthy explanation as to why the technology was bad, shouldn’t be used, and would likely lead to you being kicked from the game.

Is SOCD Cheating?

Valve, developer of Counter-Strike 2 and owner of the Steam gaming platform, has specifically moved to ban the “side-stepping skill” SOCD on its servers, while other professional gamers have called for a wider ban on the tech.

We are no longer going to allow automation (via scripting or hardware) that circumvent these core skills and, moving forward, (and initially–exclusively on Valve Official Servers) players suspected of automating multiple player actions from a single game input may be kicked from their match.

And while there are software implementations of SOCD tech, they’re not as efficient as the hardware-level versions found in the Razer and Wooting keyboards.

Currently, using SOCD in online gaming does amount to cheating, as it gives some players a vast advantage over the competition using a tool that simply isn’t available to everyone.