Player Loses Valuable 15-year Old Steam Account Because Valve Makes Absurd Demands
A former Counter-Strike and Valorant pro learned why it's better not to throw away old game keys, even after a dozen years.
Bradley "Android" Fodor has no reason to celebrate the announcement Counter-Strike 2. The former CS:GO and Valoranta pro lost a Steam account with valuable content, and to recover it requires an activation key from more than 15 years ago. At least that's what the Valve employees who handled Fodor's case insist (via Twitter).
Where did the old Steam key go?
Fodor made a mistake when modifying data on Steam. On March 23 the Canadian gamer changed his phone number, but forgot to disable account authentication before doing so. As a result, the former pro lost access to the account, where he had, among other things, unique emblems and stickers - rewards for getting to the quarterfinals of the 2018 FACEIT London Major tournament with team Complexity.
Of course, Fodor immediately wrote to Steam's technical support with a request to regain access to the account. However, Valve representatives recognized that the age and value of the account required the user to send a photo of the CD key used to register the account. It also could not be the string itself, but necessarily a photograph or scanned image of the code.
In desperation "Android" sent Valve his data, including his passport, debit card information and driver's license. To no avail - the Steam support insists on the need to send a CD key, which was most likely discarded years ago. A suggestion to send a birth certificate was also rejected.
Valve is making trouble because the account is too valuable
Interestingly, another former professional (and now Valorant coach) - Nikola "Legija" Ninic - claims that in a similar situation Valve did not cause him such problems. It was enough for him to mention his participation in tournaments and "his own stickers" and to provide his Steam ID for Valve to restore his account access and apologize for the problems. Apparently, the content of "Android"'s profile is much more valuable.
Other Internet users (via Reddit, Steam and Twitter) are either criticize on Valve or citing other ways for Fodor to get his account back. Some of them would probably do him more harm than good (including editing photographs or suing Valve), and others apparently have already failed (for example, providing debit card details or PayPal account statements used for purchases on Steam).
The only safe and (perhaps) effective advice is, in short, to recommend persistence and further contact with Steam support. Preferably until one runs into a "friendlier" employee.
The situation is all the more painful because Valve has granted access to beta tests of CS 2 to all players who have played in major tournaments (including a certain banned player on Steam; via Ido "ido_valve" Magal on Reddit). Fodor can only hope that he can quickly get his account back and join the beta before the release of Counter-Strike 2.
Perhaps the intervention of people associated with the competitive CSGO scene will help, including Jerome Coupez, founder and president of the Prodigy Agency organization.
