How to Disable Auto Balance and Team Limits in CS2
The commands, adding bots to one side, 1v5 and 5v10 setups, a practice builder and a ready config
By default Counter-Strike 2 keeps the teams even. It moves players between rounds and won't let one side get more than two players ahead. In a normal match that's fine. In practice it gets in the way: you want a 1v5 against bots, a 5v10 to train retakes, or all the bots on one side, and the game keeps fixing it back.
In this guide I'll show which commands turn auto balance and the team limit off, how to put bots on the side you want, why bots sometimes come back after you kick them, and how many players each mode can hold. There's also a builder below that writes the whole setup for you.
CS2 Auto Balance and Team Limit Commands
Two server variables decide how even the teams have to be, and a third one decides where you, the human, are allowed to play. The defaults below are from the current CS2 build:
- mp_autoteambalance
-
Auto balance on or off. Default
1
. With 1 the game moves players from the bigger team between rounds.
mp_autoteambalance 0turns it off. - mp_limitteams
-
How many players one team can have over the other. Default
2
, range 0 to 30.
mp_limitteams 0removes the check, so 1 vs 5 or 5 vs 10 is allowed. - mp_humanteam
- Locks human players to one side:
any(default),CTorT. Handy when you always want to be the lone CT against a full T team.
Valve uses the same trick itself: the config of the Workshop game mode sets mp_limitteams 0, mp_autoteambalance 0 and mp_humanteam "CT", so you can play a training map alone without the game reshuffling anyone.
All three are normal server settings. You only need sv_cheats 1 for training extras like frozen or harmless bots.
They work where you are the host: a Practice match, a private match you started, or your own server through RCON.
On Valve servers and other people's community servers the console just ignores you. Those settings belong to whoever runs the server.
How to Turn Off Auto Balance in CS2
1. Start a Practice Match
Go to Play → Practice, pick a mode and a map and press GO. The same can be done from the console. game_mode 1 is Competitive and game_mode 0 is Casual, which matters for big setups (more on slots below):
game_type 0; game_mode 1; map de_mirage
Any official map works. If you need help choosing, I keep all of them with callouts in CS2 Maps.
2. Enable the Developer Console
- Open Settings → Game.
- Set Enable Developer Console (~) to Yes.
- In game, press ~ (the key under Esc) to open it.
If the key does nothing, your keyboard layout may be eating it. Bind the console to another key in Settings → Keyboard / Mouse → Toggle Console.
3. Enter the Commands
mp_autoteambalance 0 mp_limitteams 0
Type them one by one with Enter, or paste them as one line with a ; between them. From now on the game won't move anybody between rounds and won't stop one team from being bigger. For regular practice it's easier to keep them in a config with the bot setup, I show that below.
Want to look up any other command? My CS2 console commands list has them with descriptions.
How to Add Bots to One Team in CS2
With auto balance and the limit gone, you can put bots exactly where you want them. One command adds one bot, so repeat it as many times as you need:
- bot_add_t
- Adds one bot to the Terrorists. Add the level after it to pick its difficulty:
bot_add_t expert(easy, normal, hard, expert). - bot_add_ct
- Adds one bot to the Counter-Terrorists, same way:
bot_add_ct hard.bot_add tandbot_add ctalso work. - bot_kick
- Kicks all bots.
bot_kick torbot_kick ctclears one side,bot_kick Namekicks one bot. - bot_quota_mode normal
- Makes
bot_quotasimply mean "this many bots". Practice starts infillmode, see below. - bot_difficulty 0-3
- 0 easy, 1 normal, 2 hard, 3 expert. It only affects bots added after you set it, so set it first.
- sv_auto_adjust_bot_difficulty 0
- Stops CS2 from changing bot difficulty between rounds. It's on by default: if you outplay the bots, the game makes them easier.
Why Bots Come Back After bot_kick
This is the part most guides skip. Competitive Practice runs a small config from Valve with bot_quota 10 and bot_quota_mode fill. Fill means "keep humans plus bots at 10", that's why you start with 9 bots. If you kick bots in that mode, the game can fill the server back up, and your 1v5 turns into a 5v5 again.
The fix is to switch the quota to normal right after the kick. Then the number of bots is just the number you added. This is the full 1v5 with you on CT:
bot_kick bot_quota_mode normal mp_autoteambalance 0 mp_limitteams 0 mp_humanteam CT bot_difficulty 3 sv_auto_adjust_bot_difficulty 0 bot_add_t expert bot_add_t expert bot_add_t expert bot_add_t expert bot_add_t expert mp_warmup_end mp_restartgame 1
Without sv_auto_adjust_bot_difficulty 0 your Expert bots won't stay Expert: CS2 compares their round score to yours and drops their level when you're doing better. If you're on the T side when you run it, press M and pick Counter-Terrorists. The restart at the end puts everyone on fresh spawns. More bot commands, profiles and their behaviour are in my CS2 bot commands guide, and if Expert bots are still too easy, look at how to play against the hardest bots.
How Many Bots Fit in Each Mode
Turning off the team limit doesn't add server slots. Every mode has its own player cap in Valve's gamemodes.txt, and you count as one of the players:
| Mode | Slots | Biggest setup with you |
|---|---|---|
| Wingman | 4 | 1v3 |
| Competitive | 10 | 1v9, 5v5 |
| Deathmatch | 16 | 1v15, 8v8 |
| Casual | 20 | 5v10, 10v10 |
So for 5v10 or anything above 10 players, start Casual (game_mode 0). In Competitive the extra bot_add commands have no free slot to fill.
CS2 Practice Setup Builder: 1v5, 2v5, 5v10
Pick a team size, your side and the bot difficulty, tick what you want, and copy the result into the console. The builder adds bots in the right order and also checks if the setup fits in the mode's slots.
6 players: fits Competitive practice (10 slots) and Casual (20).
bot_kick; bot_quota_mode normal; mp_autoteambalance 0; mp_limitteams 0; mp_humanteam CT; bot_difficulty 3; sv_auto_adjust_bot_difficulty 0; mp_maxmoney 60000; mp_startmoney 60000; mp_afterroundmoney 60000; mp_buytime 9999; mp_buy_anywhere 1; mp_freezetime 0; bot_add_t expert; bot_add_t expert; bot_add_t expert; bot_add_t expert; bot_add_t expert; bot_quota 5; mp_warmup_end; mp_restartgame 1
The last three options turn on sv_cheats 1, the builder adds it for you. Auto difficulty is always switched off, so the bots keep the level you picked. The bot_quota at the end just pins the number of bots you added.
A few notes on the options. Bots don't shoot and bots frozen turn the enemies into moving or standing targets, good for prefiring angles and working on crosshair placement. Money + buy anywhere lets you test any gun at any moment. If you also want to see the bots through walls while you learn their paths, the debug commands from Legal Wallhack in CS2 work in the same match, since sv_cheats is already on.
Save Your Bot Practice Setup in a CS2 Config
Typing all of this before every session gets old fast. I keep it in a small config and run it with one command.
-
Open the CS2 cfg folder:
Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\game\csgo\cfg\. If Steam is on another drive, my CS2 config location guide shows how to find it. - Create a text file and name it
practice.cfg(notpractice.cfg.txt, turn on file extensions in Windows Explorer to be sure). - Paste the builder output with the format set to Lines for a .cfg and save.
- In the match, open the console and run it:
exec practice
Run it again after every map change. Loading a map also reloads the mode config, and that puts bot_quota 10 and fill mode back. To make it even faster, bind it to a key:
bind F5 "exec practice"
How binds work and where to keep them so they don't get lost is in my CS2 bind tutorial. For the basics of creating and loading cfg files, see the CS2 config guide, and if you'd rather not write a config by hand at all, the CS2 Config Generator builds one for you.
How to Disable Auto Balance on a CS2 Dedicated Server
On your own server it's the same two variables. Put them in the server config so they're there after every restart:
mp_autoteambalance 0 mp_limitteams 0
To change them while the server is running, send them through RCON from the game console (rcon_password first, then rcon mp_limitteams 0). Which config files the server reads and in what order is in my CS2 server config files guide.
Don't want to set up a server just to practice? Plenty of community servers already run aim, retake and deathmatch modes with their own team rules. You can find them by mode and map in CS2 Community Servers.
Conclusion
To disable auto balance in CS2, use mp_autoteambalance 0. To let one team be bigger, add mp_limitteams 0. Then clear the bots with bot_kick, switch to bot_quota_mode normal so they don't refill, and add them to the side you want with bot_add_t and bot_add_ct. For more than 10 players, start Casual.
Make your setup once in the builder, save it as practice.cfg, and the next session starts with one key.
CS2 Bot Commands
Add, kick and control bots, plus a training config.
open →
The Hardest Bots in CS2
Bot difficulty levels and how to make bots tougher.
open →
CS2 Config Files
Create, load and manage cfg files without losing them.
open →
Legal Wallhack in CS2
Debug commands that show players through walls offline.
open →
How to Bind Keys in CS2
Bind syntax, toggles and where binds are saved.
open →
CS2 Console Commands
Practice, gameplay and FPS commands worth knowing.
open →CS2 Auto Balance, Team Limits and Bots FAQ
How do I disable auto balance in CS2?
Open the console in a match you host and type mp_autoteambalance 0. The game stops moving players between teams.
How do I remove the team limit in CS2?
Use mp_limitteams 0. The default is 2, which means one team can't be more than two players ahead of the other.
Do I need sv_cheats 1 for these commands?
No. mp_autoteambalance, mp_limitteams, bot_add and bot_kick work without it. You only need it for things like bot_stop, bot_dont_shoot and sv_infinite_ammo.
Why do bots come back after I kick them?
Practice uses bot_quota_mode fill with a quota of 10, so the game tops the server back up. Run bot_quota_mode normal after bot_kick, then add the bots you want.
How do I play 1v5 against bots in CS2?
Run bot_kick, bot_quota_mode normal, mp_autoteambalance 0, mp_limitteams 0, sv_auto_adjust_bot_difficulty 0, then bot_add_t expert five times and mp_restartgame 1. Or let the builder in this guide write it.
Why do my Expert bots get easier during the match?
Auto difficulty is on by default in CS2. Turn it off with sv_auto_adjust_bot_difficulty 0 and add the bots again with the level you want, for example bot_add_t expert.
Why can't I add more than 9 bots?
Competitive has 10 slots and you take one. Start Casual (game_type 0; game_mode 0; map de_mirage), it has 20.
Do these commands work in matchmaking?
No. Only the server owner can change them, so they work in Practice, in a private match you host, or on your own server.
