Is FACEIT Premium Worth It?
FACEIT is a third-party platform that offers an alternative (and arguably better) competitive CS2 experience. In today's article, we're going to shed some light on whether FACEIT’s paid subscription is worth purchasing for you. We will focus on FACEIT premium pros and cons and what it can actually do for you, but the ultimate decision, as always, is up to your preferences.
FACEIT Premium Benefits
FACEIT Premium subscription grants plenty of additional features at the low cost of $6/month. Is FACEIT premium worth buying because it’s so cheap? Do bonus features actually amount to anything? Let's find out.
Guaranteed Super Match
The Super Match grants you access to the lobbies where all players meet certain conditions, the most important of which is having roughly the same FACEIT rating (ELO points) as you. It's particularly valuable for new players who struggle with the flawed official matchmaking.
Guaranteed Verified Match
Premium users are allowed to search for matches with verified players only—meaning that all users present there have personal IDs attached to their accounts. This feature is a part of FACEIT's anti-smurf policy, and it can be good for lower-skill players who want to avoid being completely destroyed by an unverified new account of some 4k ELO player.
Map Selection
There are 7 maps in Counter-Strike's current competitive pool. FACEIT Map Selection allows you to select up to 2 maps you don’t want to play at before searching for a game. This feature can be of great value for the players who struggle to perform on all maps due to a lack of experience. Besides, sometimes people just don't like certain maps that much. Another use case is when you don't want to play the same map several times in a row — just ban it before searching for the next game.
Premium Missions
Every month, premium users get access to a set of missions (typically less than 10) that give them a chance to win the main prize (a skin with a price of about $150). The missions gradually increase in difficulty as the players progress through the event. However, to grab the main prize, you will have to complete all of them in straight order. It is a way players can profit from FACEIT premium rather than paying for it, and that is always welcome.
Matchmaking Block
FACEIT Premium allows users to block up to 5 players and never meet them in their games. So, if you meet a toxic player, you don't need to wait until he's banned and just block him straight away.
Captain Priority
Every FACEIT match starts with captains banning server locations and maps in the pool. Normally, a random player in each team automatically gets the captain status. Those with a premium subscription have higher chances of getting it. Furthermore, if the team wins a first knife round, the captain gets to choose a side (CT or T).
Monthly Ladders
FACEIT Premium has a special monthly competition with its own leaderboard and prizes. There are 5 separate ladders to provide a fair playing field to players of various proficiency: for levels 1-3, 4-6, 7-8, 9, and for level 10. Every premium user gets automatically placed in a ladder that corresponds to their current level. The core mechanics of the competition are pretty simple: players get points for winning competitive FACEIT matches, and lose some for every defeat. By the end of each month, the top-10 players in every ladder are rewarded with FACEIT points (internal currency that players can spend in the platform’s shop to get skins and other cosmetics). The higher the ladder’s level, the more prize points winners get.
Nickname Change Every 3 Months
This one is pretty self-explanatory. FACEIT premium allows you to change your nickname for free once every three months. You can also do it without premium, but it will cost you 1,000 hard-earned FACEIT points.
Match Highlights
This premium feature automatically reviews your matches to find epic highlights and saves them for you. You can post those to your FACEIT profile to show everyone how good you are and maybe even get some constructive feedback.
Subscription Badge
Here it is. Definitely worth the money ;)
Disadvantages
So, is FACEIT premium worth it? Don’t make up your mind until you see its cons.
- Matchmaking block. This feature, or rather the way FACEIT introduces it, is misleading. The thing is, blocking players will prevent the system only from placing you in one team. So, if you want to block a cheater or a smurf that destroyed you in the last game, Matchmaking Block won't help you. Moreover, even if you block a person, there's a possibility you will meet them the very next game in an opposing team.
- Guaranteed verified match. Today, all new players are forced to verify accounts. This means you might still encounter smurfs in verified matches.
- Premium missions. If you take a good look at the missions, you will soon understand that to grab the main prize, one will have to play CS2 for most of the month’s time. They are also quite long and difficult to complete.
- Highlights. This feature was rather popular in the days of CS:GO. Today, very few people use it. This is because the feature doesn’t work in the web version of FACEIT, and running FACEIT desktop client with highlights enabled causes performance issues (and the game already has quite a few without any outside “help”).
In What Cases Is It Necessary to Purchase Premium FACEIT?
As you can see, FACEIT premium features have some cool benefits. However, it's hard to say that it's absolutely necessary to purchase. Yet, if you find features like choosing maps, being a captain, farming skins, or playing solo and avoiding 4- and 5-man stacks, the premium is a must for you.
Conclusion
A FACEIT premium subscription definitely enhances the user experience. But in the end, is FACEIT premium worth it for CS2? Given that the investment is relatively small, we find the premium worth at least a try. However, if you're a FACEIT newcomer, you should give it a go without the paid subscription just to feel the vibe of the platform and decide whether to upgrade or not.
