Counter-Strike's 128-tick servers depend on consistent ping, and VPNs introduce jitter that completely ruins hit registration. Anti-cheat systems like VAC sometimes mark VPN IPs as suspicious, leading to unexpected matchmaking cooldowns. A friend of mine got banned for an hour after his VPN flickered during a ranked game. The encryption overhead isn't just about bandwidth throttling, it adds processing delay that affects every real-time keystroke. For competitive gaming, that tiny lag means missing headshots you'd normally land. Most serious players I know only use VPNs to avoid stream snipers, not for actual gameplay.