Now, as you all may know Valve has yet to deal with the major bot issue and if they ever will no one knows. What we do know is that we have Scream Fortress XIII perhaps one of the biggest events in Team Fortress 2! Daily players and returning players want to enjoy Scream Fortress for all it's worth, and bots try to prevent that and ruin matches. So here's some tips to everyone (especially returning players) to deal with the bots. Also a catch up for returning players who've not experienced bots yet.

1. Take a quick glance at the scoreboard

What I mean by this is pressing tab (it may be a different key for you) but whatever key it is to bring up the scoreboard and take a quick glance to see who is on your team and who is joining. Just by doing this will help prevent bots from sneaking in, lagging out the server and ruining the game. As you may know, once there is multiple bots, it's very difficult to kick them. I will explain how to spot a bot in the next couple sections.


2. Kicking the bot, and not the player!

As you may know or may not know, bots can and a lot of times will take players names. They do this to confuse people into kicking the real person instead of the bot. Some easy ways to identify if it's the bot or the person is: their class, join time, mic/chat spamming, cosmetics, and sometimes even amount of head shot kills (last one is only pertaining if it's a Sniper bot). Most bots will wear the same cosmetics so you'll know what to look for in no time. By looking at the scoreboard you can see the persons name, class, and if you click on them even their character. Join time is under the vote kicking option.


3. Call the vote, or get other teammates to call a vote!

Whenever you spot a bot on your team try to kick it immediately, and if your vote kick is on cool down try to encourage other teammates to kick the bot! This also goes for the enemy team, if you spot a bot joining their team or if it's a bot they haven't saw to kick yet, let them know! Of course don't be an a** about it though!

If you don't know how to vote kick, press ESC, and look towards the bottom of your screen for a box with a check mark, after clicking it it'll show the players on your team with names, avatars, and join time. PLEASE make sure you are 100% positive it is the bot you are kicking, and not the real player!

4. People and bots calling votes

Whenever there is a vote called (unless you are 100% certain) check to see who is calling the vote before pressing F1, sometimes bots will call the vote and trick people into voting F1 to kick a real player. I know it's a short time frame, but try to let people know to F2 if it's a bot calling it or F1 if it's the real player calling it!

Thank you so much for taking a moment to read my guide! I just wanted to post a short guide since I see a lot of players (most likely returning players) confused on what is going on and what to do about it! I also hope this encourages players to join in to kick these bots, and help keep everyone enjoying the game we know and love!

When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, 'tis near Halloween! 🎃👻