#PootHeavyInSmash

Update on this- it seems like these pseudo-DDOS attacks, as some are labeling this, have been occurring in waves. It's quieted down for now. We don't know if the vulnerability has been addressed, if the bad actors ran out of resources for the moment, or if/when this will start again.

For those wondering why you can't play TF2 right now: there's a new "bot" wave. Currently, there seems to be an exploit where one can "speak" to TF2's game coordinator without a TF2 client running, or running via text-mode or "headless." Bot hosters can effectively lie, and tell it that they're a "player" wanting to join a server, and it will reserve a slot for them as if though they were a real player. Since they aren't real, they'll reserve that slot until they time out, preventing other players from joining, delay games from beginning, and increase queue times. Rinse and repeat with thousands of "accounts," and you can't play the game. Since they aren't running the game client, each "bot" requires far less memory to operate, meaning the scale of these bot waves can be far larger than that of the cheating bots we saw years prior. Here's a screenshot from a website that tracks the number of queuing players. All gamemodes are being affected. This is really bad. Unlike cheating bots, you can't kick these out. They clog the server indefinitely. Lord knows how long it will take for valve to address this. Hopefully not years like last time.

Seriously? This strawman again? Practically no one is demanding for TF2 to receive the same level of attention as Deadlock. What we are demanding is that it receive the same level of attention as any other game that generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue each year. You're misinterpreting the (rightfully) embittered fans of TF2 and CS as demanding equal treatment, when we just want SOMETHING meaningful beyond more money makers. As for TF2, a game that earns this much money should not be neglected to the extent it has been. I don't think need to remind everyone of the bullshit this game has been through and continues to go through. Cheaters, mediocre to outright broken content selections, broken matchmaking, a hilariously bloated map pool with practically zero quality control, a laundry list of long-standing bugs that for whatever reason never get addressed, should I keep going? Yet despite all of this, Valve keeps earning from TF2 an amount of money ANY developer would be begging to make annually from a live service title. It's funny how the "game old, move on" argument only applies to Valve, and practically no other company with old, profitable titles that are 10+ years old. The lengths some go to shield Valve from rightfully deserved criticism never ceases to amaze me. It's like saying Coca Cola could just ignore if Sprite Cherry Lime started tasting like rancid meat because that product earns a fraction of what normal Coca Cola does, and complaining about this would somehow make you the unreasonable one.

I hate revisionism from newgen players that weren't around to experience TF2 prior to 2016. I can pinpoint the golden age perfectly: before valve implemented a fundamentally flawed matchmaking system that does not work, and has never worked, since day 1. Back when queueing for a server wasn't a gamble with your free time. Back when I could play with (or against!) as many of my friends whenever I wanted to, and wasn't subject to an awful party system. Back when I could directly join my friends server via adhoc instead of using said party system. Back when we had thriving community servers, of all kinds, that weren't killed off by the matchmaking system. Back when updates were actually exciting, meaningful, instead of Valve dumping piles of lame cosmetics into the game and taking our money, all while ignoring waves of cheating bots for 8 fucking years and muting free to plays, requiring not 1 but 2 massive community outcries to get them to squirt out ONE tweet, and allow a single contractor to deal with the bots 2 years later. Valve killed off player agency, countless communities and their servers, the flow of gameplay, and lost the trust of their players, all for their failed matchmaking experiment to shove TF2 into the esports hole to compete with overwatch. It's failed for 10 years. Leaving the game in indefinite maintenance mode as they milk what's left for tens of millions a year. Yeah, we had a golden era, you missed it. I wish you hadn't so you wouldn't say stupid shit like this. It wasn't perfect, but in comparison to where the game is today? It might as well have been.

Valve just manually game banned MARI members, and their alts. MARI (an offshoot of the now defunct tacobot group) being the group of cheaters, bot hosters, and all around troublemakers within TF2's MvM game mode. Seems like this was done in preparation for the upcoming MvM update. Good riddance.

Welp, I'm glad they're still working, and I'm glad I'm wrong in that they didn't abandon it. Also I think this is the most communicative Valve has been with an update since 2016.