If you have been a part of the gaming community for a long enough time, you must have come across terms such has FPS (frames per second), which stands for the number of distinct images appearing on your screen during a second, or Ping, which represents the time it takes for your device to transmit certain data to a server on the internet and for it to return to you. However, inside the CS:GO community, there is also another one that comes up frequently, Tick Rate. But what exactly is Tick Rate?
We will thoroughly explain everything about the theme, from its definition to practical examples and even why does a smoke you throw on a server lands differently depending on its Tick Rate.
What does it mean?
Its actual definition stands for the frequency (measured in Hertz) with which the game updates its own game state at that specific moment, by sending information to the server where the game is being hosted. The information that is sent ranges from player positions to how the grenades were thrown and even to the position of those cute "Inferno" chickens.
Although this is a much more abstract concept than the ones mentioned at the beginning of this guide, a server's Tick Rate may similarly influence the performance of the players on it.
Let us go through a more practical example. Valve's matchmaking servers are hosted with a Tick Rate of 64 Hertz, in comparisons to the 128 Tick Rate of a "Faceit" server or even a Valorant ranked server, Riot's new shooter. What this means is that, on each second, Valve's servers update the information concerning every aspect of that MM game 64 times, whereas "Faceit"'s servers update it a whooping 128 times, which makes for double of the updates during the same period of time.
On the following picture you will find visual representation of a 20 Tick Rated server in comparison to a 128 Hertz one and the spacing between the numerous updates of the server information.
Image taken from here
How does it influence my game?
As you can imagine, if information is updated twice as fast on a certain server, that server ought to be more precise. Counter Strike is a game of milliseconds, and just as the Latency (or Ping) with what you are playing on matters immensely, the frequency with each the server registers where your shots are going and whether they hit or not will obviously also matter for the players.
Will it be changed?
If Tick Rate is so important then why does Valve keep providing its main player base with only 64 Tick servers? Well, there is not an actual answer for that question from the company, so we can only speculate about it. However, the most obvious reason would be the costs that come from having to upgrade thousands and thousands of servers to a higher Tick Rate, which would ask for a big investment on their part.
Amongst the community there have been numerous rumours and theories created around this topic throughout the years, with the last one having appeared during CS:GO's most recent Operation, "Broken Fang". On one of the new co-op missions available to play in, the "Autumn Harvest Operation", there were radios scattered around the map, with each and every one of them being tuned to the channel "128". The CS:GO community thought this could not be a coincidence and tied this pattern on the channel's numbers to a hypothetical update to the server Tick Rate.
The rumour circulating before the above mentioned appeared a few months before the operation came out. During a live transmission of "ESL One's Road to Rio", Henry "HenryG" Greer, one of the most respected CS:GO casters to ever do it hinted at an hypothetical update to 128 Tick Rated servers in matchmaking, something his colleagues joining him at the analysts' desk did not seem to know anything about.
Well, as of right now, neither of these most recent rumours and theories has proven to be more than just that, as Valve has not mentioned a possible update a single time.
However, given the fact that Riot's new first person shooter, Valorant, has every ranked server with 128 Tick Rate, would it be so strange as to believe Valve would want to make a change in the near future? I guess we will have to wait and see!
Why do my smokes land differently?
If you have been around long enough, you may have noticed that some smokes you learn by watching a "Youtube" tutorial do not land where they are supposed to on your matchmaking games. Well, there are 3 possible reasons for this to happen:
Option A: The smoke Lineup may be really old, so the map may have suffered updates which affect the desired landing place;
Option B: You are not doing exactly as shown in the tutorial;
Option C: The smoke you are trying to throw only works on a specific Tick Rate.
There are some smokes which involve using a Jump Throw bind that only work on a specific Tick Rate. So, if you were to throw a Jump Throwing smoke that lands correctly on Faceit pug (128 tick), that does not mean they will land in the exact same place when you go and play Matchmaking with your friends (64 Tick).
The speed and the place in the air at which your player model is at the moment of throwing a smoke will influence where it will land. That is why a Jump Throw bind is needed, because when it is used, it throws the grenade at the highest point of the jump, which makes these Lineups consistent, something rather impossible without it.
Keeping in mind the difference between 64 tick and 128 tick servers, with it being that the latter updates the server information twice as fast, the differences between where the grenades land from Tick Rate to Tick Rate is perfectly justifiable. Just like when you jump in real life, your player model speed will also vary during a jump in game. However, on a 64 Tick server the speed in the air during the jump is only updated half the times of a 128 tick one. Because how the jumps work in the game, the highest movement speed occurs between 2 ticks on a 64 Tick server. If it occurs between 2 ticks, that means the server will only be able to register the speed before the peak and the speed right after. For a 128 Tick one, because there is an extra Tick between the two mentioned above, the server will be able to register a value that is closer to the peak value of speed. Therefore, your player model on a 64 Tick Rated server will always be registered to have obtained a lower peak speed than the same player model jumping at the exact same place on a 128 Tick Rated server, influencing the landing place of the smoke grenade.
So, these were some answers for the questions you may have had for the longest time about the differences in Tick Rate. Always remember to double check the tutorials you are watching if they involve jump throwing. You do not want to miss that new jungle smoke so, better be prepared! And who knows, maybe we will be covering the topic of new 128 Tick Rate servers being introduced to matchmaking in the near future!
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