Every 2hours.gg CS2 server in competitive mode boots with MatchZy preconfigured, knife round, ready system, MR12, overtime, tactical pauses, and auto-demo recording. There is nothing to set up. This walks through exactly what happens from the moment 10 players connect to the moment the demo is uploaded.
1. Connect and pick a team
Players join with the connect string from your dashboard. They land in warmup with team menus open, pick T or CT. MatchZy doesn't care which side you start on; the knife round decides who picks first.
2. Ready up
Type .ready in chat. You'll see a confirmation. When all 10 players are ready, the match starts automatically, warmup ends, knife round begins.
Change your mind? .unready cancels it.
3. Knife round
A one-round knives-only fight. Whichever team wins gets to choose their starting side for the main match. After the knife round ends, the winning team has 15 seconds to decide.
Any player on the winning team types one of:
.stay: remain on the side you knifed on.switch: swap sides
4. The match itself
MR12, first team to 13 rounds wins. Tied at 12-12, overtime begins (MR3, $10,000 starting money, alternating sides every 3 rounds). Standard CS2 competitive economy. Side swap at halftime.
5. Pauses and timeouts
Three commands handle interruptions:
.pause: tactical pause at the end of the current round.unpause: request to resume (both teams must agree).tac: call a 30-second tactical timeout (limited per team per half)
6. The demo
MatchZy records the entire match automatically. When the map ends, the .dem file is uploaded to your account page under server history. Demos remain available indefinitely, see downloading and watching demos for playback.
Best-of-3 and best-of-5 series
Single-match competitive is the default, but tournaments and scrim nights usually run series. Bo3 (first team to win 2 maps) or Bo5 (first to 3). MatchZy supports both natively.
For a Bo3 night, MatchZy walks both teams through a veto: bans alternate until 3 maps remain, then the highest-ranked map plays first, second-highest second, third as the decider if needed. Side picks happen per-map via the same knife round flow as a single match.
For more detail (custom map pools, match config files, admin overrides), see the tournament hosting guide.
Common gotchas
- If the match won't start, check that all 10 players have typed .ready (one missing = warmup forever).
- Knife round side pick only works for players on the winning team. Anyone else typing .stay/.switch is ignored.
- A pause request needs both teams to type .unpause before play resumes. There's no admin override unless you have MatchZy admin status.