Lag compensation

Lag compensation lets the server judge a shot by what the shooter saw. The server keeps a short history of where every player’s hitbox was and, when a shot arrives, rewinds to the moment the shooter fired, based on that player’s latency. Overwatch popularised the name “favor the shooter” for the approach.

Where the term comes from

The earliest source found is Yahn W. Bernier’s 2001 paper for Valve on latency compensation in its multiplayer engine; its use in Counter-Strike on Source made the technique standard.

Examples

Each game links to the source that describes it using the mechanic.

• Counter-Strike, made with GoldSrc
• Overwatch
• Battlefield 3, made with Frostbite

Related terms: Netcode, Tick rate, Hitscan, TTK (time to kill), Rubber-banding (network).

Engines: Source, Source.

Sources

Checked November 3, 2026.

1. Lag Compensation — Valve (Internet Archive copy)
2. Latency Compensating Methods in Client/Server In-game Protocol Design and Optimization — Valve (Internet Archive copy)
3. Lag Compensation — GameDesign.gg