Razer’s new Snap Tap keyboard technology has caused quite a stir within the Counter-Strike community recently. The consequences of which have caused many to question the competitive integrity of using a keyboard with the feature on-board. In this blog post, we’ll answer the question of what a null bind is, what Snap Tap does, and why it has caused so much controversy.

What is a null bind?

Before you can understand what Snap Tap does, it’s important to know what a null bind is. A null bind typically refers to a special bind created with console commands that makes you unable to input multiple keys at the same time. These binds, or “nulls,” can be applied to any keys, but are typically only applied to movement keys, specifically those that are used for (counter) strafing.

Using nulls on your A and D keys allows the player to never have any overlap between those two keys being pressed, allowing for frame perfect movement. Null binds have been a controversial topic of discussion among competitive CS players for a long time, but especially among those who play movement game modes, like KZ and Surf. Players using them will have perfect air strafing, allowing for faster air speed, which in turn lowers their map times and increases their long jump distance; two very important things in movement game modes.

In the case of the conventional 5v5 competitive game mode in CS2, nulls provide the ability to hit counter-strafes with frame perfect precision. You can strafe out to peek using D, and when you hit A to counter-strafe, it no longer matters when you let go of the D key, as your null bind will have cancelled out the D input when you pressed A, resulting in a frame perfect counter-strafe.

Because of this, null binds as we’ve known them have been banned from any competitive setting essentially since they were discovered.

What is Razer’s Snap Tap?

Snap Tap is essentially a reincarnation of this long forgotten macro input. With a firmware update to their Huntsman Pro V3 line of keyboards, Razer have baked in the ability to set nulls for any key on the keyboard using their software. It performs the same action as a null bind set within the CS2 console would, only difference being that the action is being performed on-board the keyboard.

“Shouldn’t be allowed”

ropz didn’t mince words when he gave his two cents on Razer’s new technology, citing that it is indeed the same as null binds; something that is currently banned in competitive play. The controversy only grows when it was confirmed to be allowed in official ESL tournaments by ESL head referee and admin, Michal Slowinski.

This causes a very obvious conflict, where the Razer technology has been permitted for use, but the rules have kept use of null binds banned. Will ESL take a second look at the technology and outlaw the use of it? Will the ban on null binds be lifted instead? Only time will tell.