Guide · for Server owners and players
Fake Servers: How AACGUARD Spots Them
Impossible player counts, copied server names and server farms: the checks that keep fake servers out of the list.
Updated · 1 min read · by the AACGUARD team
Fake servers are a long-standing problem in Counter-Strike: servers that copy a popular server's name, show a full player count that isn't real, and send players somewhere else. The AACGUARD server list checks every server against a few clear rules and hides the fakes.
Rule 1: impossible player counts
Each game has a real maximum number of player slots: 32 for CS 1.6, 64 for CS:GO and CS2. A server that reports more slots or more players than the game allows, more players than its own slots, or the classic fake "255/255", is marked fake.
Rule 2: copied names
When the same server name appears on several different addresses, only one of them is the real server. If the name contains a domain (for example play.example.ro), the real server is the one at the address that domain points to. Without a domain, the oldest listing that is not on a server farm is treated as the real one. The copies are hidden and point to the real server.
A community running the same name on several ports of its own address, or on a neighbouring address of the same host, is not treated as copying itself.
Rule 3: server farms
An address that hosts several fake or copied servers, or the same names cloned across many ports, is treated as a farm, and all of its servers are hidden.
What you see
A fake server's page shows a red notice with the reason, for example "Reports 255/255 players", and a link to the real server when there is one. Fake servers stay in the database, so they can't simply be added again.
Mistakes
If your real server was marked fake, contact us with the address. The site admin can mark a server as real so the automatic check never hides it again.