OldHeads: a CS:GO matchmaking platform with its own server fleet

Third-party matchmaking for a legacy shooter means running the whole stack yourself: queues, ratings, anticheat, game servers, and a community economy. OldHeads is that stack, built for a CS:GO community that refused to move on.

Gaming

4 months

OldHeads: a CS:GO matchmaking platform with its own server fleet screenshot 1

The Product

What It Does

Under the Hood

How It Works

The backend runs ranked queues on Redis sorted sets with a matchmaker ticking every 3 seconds, per-mode ELO with performance bonuses, and an HMAC-authenticated API that dedicated game servers use to report matches. Servers themselves are provisioned dynamically on VPS hosts and managed over RCON, with SourcePawn plugins for matchmaking and anticheat in-game. Players use an Electron client with Steam login and auto-update; hardware-ID attestation and alt-account linking back the anticheat. Cases, skin trading, tournaments, and a fishing minigame keep the community economy alive between matches.

Deep Dive

About the Project

## What we built A complete third-party matchmaking ecosystem: queues and ratings, a desktop client, dedicated server orchestration, in-game plugins, anticheat, tournaments, and community features (cases, trading, fishing). ## Tech FastAPI with async SQLAlchemy, MySQL, and Redis, an Electron and React desktop client with auto-update and Steam login, SourcePawn game-server plugins, dynamic VPS provisioning, Docker Compose, GitHub Actions with an AWS production environment. ## Results Around 30 tables, 18 routers, WebSocket realtime, a 3-second matchmaking loop, and an anticheat posture based on hardware attestation rather than trust. ## What is next Seasonal ladders and tournament automation on top of the existing bracket models.

The Outcome