Team Fortress 2 is a game that is near and dear to my heart. I joined many years ago after having seen the End of the Line Update video when it first came out. Over the course of 6 months i played, and played my heart out and fell in love with the depth, community, and richness of this amazing game. That was back in 2015, at that point I bought my first item which at the time was the "Teufort Knight" Hat. Looking back, not the best purchase, but I personally loved it. Back then, the bot problem was there, but I didn't even know what one was at the time because of how rare they were.

Fast forward to 2018 and I had amassed tons of hours on this game, My friends were always into Fortnite, or wanting me to play Overwatch, and I had tried them. However, TF2 still held a special place in my heart, leagues above almost any other game. I had experienced the joys of community servers, the thrill and challenge of taking on waves of MVM, and the Tryhard experience of competitive. However, the place that i seemed to find my home consistently was in casual lobbies, where i could find, in my opinion at the time, the best of the community. I remember the friends i used to play with, and new amazing people i would encounter every day. I remember the endless 2fort matches, or the Trolldiering on Hightower, the intense games of Upward next to the broken games of dustbowl. Those were the days, but eventually, I had to take a step away from TF2. This was not because i disliked the game, or even because I wanted a break, life had just required me to for a bit. I realized and took solace in the fact that TF2 would always be waiting for me when I got back to it.

I stopped playing for a few months, and as life grew more challenging those months turned into years inevitably. I had stopped even thinking about TF2 and found I only had time for single player games where I could hop on and hop off at will. However about five months ago, I had just quit a really stressful program I had been apart of, and was in an actually really in a good head space. I had recently replayed Half Life 2 and had been consuming Half Life media on youtube, When suddenly I had seen a video by Lazy Purple in my recommended, it was called "How it Feels to Play Spy." That video got me to watch another video in the series of "How it feels" followed by other videos TF2 related, and later that week i found myself reinstalling and feeling nostalgic. As it was installing it felt like a scene in a movie, when a character finds something old and precious to them, and dusts it off before admiring it.

Once the game was installed, I clicked play, and loaded it up. I queued up for my first match in six years and prepared to have my nostalgia bone tickled. I loaded in, and realized I was on frontier, a map I knew and loved. I got in and picked my good old soldier, and attempted to rocket jump. I say attempted because it would seem that Rocket Jumping is not in fact like riding a bike. Instead i went directly up in the air and was headshot from across the map. "Well that makes sense, that was a good shot though" I thought to myself. I respawned and made my way outside again...and was insta domed once more. Thats when i noticed the chat, absolutely blowing up with all sorts of weird ads. I wass curious who the hacker was because there seemed to be more than one, so i hit tab...and i saw something hearbreaking. It was me and one other person on the other team...the rest of lobby was entirely bots. So...I requeued.

The next game I joined instantly ended and I loaded into another one, this was a 2fort match. I enjoyed this match very much actually and had discussed what I had just gone through with another person on my team. Over the past five months however, it has become increasingly hard to find matches like the Latter, and more common are the former, matches absolutely packed with bots. These bots are killing the game, no questions asked, and almost ruined my experience as a returning player. If it ruined my experience, what do you imagine it is doing to the experiences of new players. Before returning to this game, i thought valve was an amazing consumer friendly company. But it turns out I was quite wrong....they might have been in the past..but now...no. The only way this game gets fixed isn't by us tugging on the heartstrings of valve...because there is no heart to pull on. It gets fixed by us showing everyone exactly how little valve actually cares about their consumer base. They haven't updated us, They haven't tried to make this right, The problem gets worse with every moment and yet, silence. The only thing they have done was say that they would do something to fix it to shut us up TWO YEARS AGO. And yet here we are...and still, nothing. Not a peep, not a change...just more silence. And on top of all that, they still have new cosmetics and items that they drop all the time that we can spend money on. They don't even make these items, they just rip them right out of the community market and slap a price tag on them. It's half assed, and lazy, and they know it. That's why they haven't said a word, not a peep...and they won't unless we start getting louder. Thats why we need to get on the #FixTF2 Train, and make some noise. They Lied to our faces once, i doubt they will do it again. If you are seeing this, please help out and sign the petition to Fix TF2 at fixtf2.tf . If you want to see this game saved, please, let's let Valve know together.

Team Fortress 2 is a game that is near and dear to my heart. I joined many years ago after having seen the End of the Line Update video when it first came out. Over the course of 6 months i played, and played my heart out and fell in love with the depth, community, and richness of this amazing game. That was back in 2015, at that point I bought my first item which at the time was the "Teufort Knight" Hat. Looking back, not the best purchase, but I personally loved it. Back then, the bot problem was there, but I didn't even know what one was at the time because of how rare they were. Fast forward to 2018 and I had amassed tons of hours on this game, My friends were always into Fortnite, or wanting me to play Overwatch, and I had tried them. However, TF2 still held a special place in my heart, leagues above almost any other game. I had experienced the joys of community servers, the thrill and challenge of taking on waves of MVM, and the Tryhard experience of competitive. However, the place that i seemed to find my home consistently was in casual lobbies, where i could find, in my opinion at the time, the best of the community. I remember the friends i used to play with, and new amazing people i would encounter every day. I remember the endless 2fort matches, or the Trolldiering on Hightower, the intense games of Upward next to the broken games of dustbowl. Those were the days, but eventually, I had to take a step away from TF2. This was not because i disliked the game, or even because I wanted a break, life had just required me to for a bit. I realized and took solace in the fact that TF2 would always be waiting for me when I got back to it. I stopped playing for a few months, and as life grew more challenging those months turned into years inevitably. I had stopped even thinking about TF2 and found I only had time for single player games where I could hop on and hop off at will. However about five months ago, I had just quit a really stressful program I had been apart of, and was in an actually really in a good head space. I had recently replayed Half Life 2 and had been consuming Half Life media on youtube, When suddenly I had seen a video by Lazy Purple in my recommended, it was called "How it Feels to Play Spy." That video got me to watch another video in the series of "How it feels" followed by other videos TF2 related, and later that week i found myself reinstalling and feeling nostalgic. As it was installing it felt like a scene in a movie, when a character finds something old and precious to them, and dusts it off before admiring it. Once the game was installed, I clicked play, and loaded it up. I queued up for my first match in six years and prepared to have my nostalgia bone tickled. I loaded in, and realized I was on frontier, a map I knew and loved. I got in and picked my good old soldier, and attempted to rocket jump. I say attempted because it would seem that Rocket Jumping is not in fact like riding a bike. Instead i went directly up in the air and was headshot from across the map. "Well that makes sense, that was a good shot though" I thought to myself. I respawned and made my way outside again...and was insta domed once more. Thats when i noticed the chat, absolutely blowing up with all sorts of weird ads. I wass curious who the hacker was because there seemed to be more than one, so i hit tab...and i saw something hearbreaking. It was me and one other person on the other team...the rest of lobby was entirely bots. So...I requeued. The next game I joined instantly ended and I loaded into another one, this was a 2fort match. I enjoyed this match very much actually and had discussed what I had just gone through with another person on my team. Over the past five months however, it has become increasingly hard to find matches like the Latter, and more common are the former, matches absolutely packed with bots. These bots are killing the game, no questions asked, and almost ruined my experience as a returning player. If it ruined my experience, what do you imagine it is doing to the experiences of new players. Before returning to this game, i thought valve was an amazing consumer friendly company. But it turns out I was quite wrong....they might have been in the past..but now...no. The only way this game gets fixed isn't by us tugging on the heartstrings of valve...because there is no heart to pull on. It gets fixed by us showing everyone exactly how little valve actually cares about their consumer base. They haven't updated us, They haven't tried to make this right, The problem gets worse with every moment and yet, silence. The only thing they have done was say that they would do something to fix it to shut us up TWO YEARS AGO. And yet here we are...and still, nothing. Not a peep, not a change...just more silence. And on top of all that, they still have new cosmetics and items that they drop all the time that we can spend money on. They don't even make these items, they just rip them right out of the community market and slap a price tag on them. It's half assed, and lazy, and they know it. That's why they haven't said a word, not a peep...and they won't unless we start getting louder. Thats why we need to get on the #FixTF2 Train, and make some noise. They Lied to our faces once, i doubt they will do it again. If you are seeing this, please help out and sign the petition to Fix TF2 at fixtf2.tf . If you want to see this game saved, please, let's let Valve know together.