I met my match alright, because I can't stand this horrible update.

I've been a long time player, been here since the Replay Update back in may of 2011, and this is my absolute favorite game of all time, but this update might finally be the nail in the coffin for me.

The biggest glaring issue here is the removal of valve servers. Say you want to play a match of sawmill or maybe a map that isn't so popular such as lumberyard, you would normally just bring up the browser, narrow the search to the map you want, find the valve server with a healthy amount of players and good ping, boom! You're done!

Nope, with the newest EPIC CONTENT UPDATE, these servers have since been removed, and replaced with 'casual mode'


Now casual mode is its own can of worms. During the launch of this update, you couldn't even CHOOSE THE MAP YOU WANTED TO PLAY ON. You picked your game mode, pressed a button, and now you're shoved in a que for an extrememly long waiting time. Some things have been fixed since then, though the experience is hardly any better. It goes something like this:

1. Choose the map and mode you wish to play

2. Enter the que and wait up to 5 minutes to get into a game

3. Join a server that is often a one sided stomp that ends faster than the time it took to join the server

4. The map ends, everyone disconnects

5. Repeat steps 1-4 until you die of old age

You might be thinking "just go play on community servers!" If by "community servers" you mean "only 2fort/dustbowl" then sure, you can play that to your hearts content. But for a game with 92 different maps spanning across 15 game modes, I think I'm right in wanting a little bit of diversity here and there.

There are other servers of course, many in fact, so why don't I play on some of them? Mainly because, most of them are garbage custom servers or AMAZING trade servers. I hope you like custom maps/modes (especially minecraft ones), because there are about 9 billion of them to choose from!

I live on the east coast of America and mainly play at night. I can hardly ever find a match with 20 players+, good ping, and stock maps that aren't dustbowl/2fort. This is unnacceptable. Where the hell are all the 50k players at?


I don't play competitive, and frankly never ever will. Personally I believe this game isn't competitive and should have never had had this mode added. This is the main point of this update, so it must be amazing right?


Wrong.


As far as I know, this mode has been in beta for half a year, maybe less/more. Plenty of time to polish some of its features up. But yet again, Valve somehow managed to screw it up.

No class restrictions, telephone number REQUIRED or else you have to spend money, no weapon restrictions, no real rewards.

No class restricitions is self explanatory. You can have about 6 engineers/snipers/spies on your team if you wanted. Now this isn't always a bad thing per se, but If you plan on playing competitive solo, half a team full of gibus spies might be an issue.

The telephone number restriction helps combat against trolls and griefers, but then again, what about the people that don't have a telephone number or don't want to give away their personal contact information to Valve?

Cough up that $10 buddy because that's the toll of admission if you want to join the competitive club.

Now to me, the no weapon restrictions would honestly kill the mode for me. Banning some of the more broken weapons would really level the playing field. Instead, you get full access to the mini-crits-on-demand cola and the reserve 130-damage-for-blowbacking-a-target-shooter (which by the way, valve planned on buffing for this update).

Last but not least, no real rewards. Valve should be aware that the vast majority of the playerbase isn't going to play competitive just to win and rank up that badge that no one outside of competitive mode will see. They could have added some fancy new weapon skins or exclusive cosmetics to compensate that gut wrenching grind to level 10 or even level 18. But instead, you get nothing. You upgrade your badge to a different picture and that's your lot.



tldr this update sucks and I advise everyone to stay away from the game until they update casual to feel more like valve servers again


This is my first long review that isn't just a meme sentence, and this game has a special place in my heart, so it deserves something that comes from it.

[h1] The meet your match update. [/h1] I met my match alright, because I can't stand this horrible update. I've been a long time player, been here since the Replay Update back in may of 2011, and this is my absolute favorite game of all time, but this update might finally be the nail in the coffin for me. The biggest glaring issue here is the removal of valve servers. Say you want to play a match of sawmill or maybe a map that isn't so popular such as lumberyard, you would normally just bring up the browser, narrow the search to the map you want, find the valve server with a healthy amount of players and good ping, boom! You're done! Nope, with the newest EPIC CONTENT UPDATE, these servers have since been removed, and replaced with 'casual mode' [h1] Casual mode [/h1] Now casual mode is its own can of worms. During the launch of this update, you couldn't even CHOOSE THE MAP YOU WANTED TO PLAY ON. You picked your game mode, pressed a button, and now you're shoved in a que for an extrememly long waiting time. Some things have been fixed since then, though the experience is hardly any better. It goes something like this: 1. Choose the map and mode you wish to play 2. Enter the que and wait up to 5 minutes to get into a game 3. Join a server that is often a one sided stomp that ends faster than the time it took to join the server 4. The map ends, everyone disconnects 5. Repeat steps 1-4 until you die of old age You might be thinking "just go play on community servers!" If by "community servers" you mean "only 2fort/dustbowl" then sure, you can play that to your hearts content. But for a game with 92 different maps spanning across 15 game modes, I think I'm right in wanting a little bit of diversity here and there. There are other servers of course, many in fact, so why don't I play on some of them? Mainly because, most of them are garbage custom servers or AMAZING trade servers. I hope you like custom maps/modes (especially minecraft ones), because there are about 9 billion of them to choose from! I live on the east coast of America and mainly play at night. I can hardly ever find a match with 20 players+, good ping, and stock maps that aren't dustbowl/2fort. This is unnacceptable. Where the hell are all the 50k players at? [h1] Competitive Mode [/h1] I don't play competitive, and frankly never ever will. Personally I believe this game isn't competitive and should have never had had this mode added. This is the main point of this update, so it must be amazing right? Wrong. As far as I know, this mode has been in beta for half a year, maybe less/more. Plenty of time to polish some of its features up. But yet again, Valve somehow managed to screw it up. No class restrictions, telephone number REQUIRED or else you have to spend money, no weapon restrictions, no real rewards. No class restricitions is self explanatory. You can have about 6 engineers/snipers/spies on your team if you wanted. Now this isn't always a bad thing per se, but If you plan on playing competitive solo, half a team full of gibus spies might be an issue. The telephone number restriction helps combat against trolls and griefers, but then again, what about the people that don't have a telephone number or don't want to give away their personal contact information to Valve? Cough up that $10 buddy because that's the toll of admission if you want to join the competitive club. Now to me, the no weapon restrictions would honestly kill the mode for me. Banning some of the more broken weapons would really level the playing field. Instead, you get full access to the mini-crits-on-demand cola and the reserve 130-damage-for-blowbacking-a-target-shooter (which by the way, valve planned on buffing for this update). Last but not least, no real rewards. Valve should be aware that the vast majority of the playerbase isn't going to play competitive just to win and rank up that badge that no one outside of competitive mode will see. They could have added some fancy new weapon skins or exclusive cosmetics to compensate that gut wrenching grind to level 10 or even level 18. But instead, you get nothing. You upgrade your badge to a different picture and that's your lot. [h1] In conclusion [/h1] tldr this update sucks and I advise everyone to stay away from the game until they update casual to feel more like valve servers again This is my first long review that isn't just a meme sentence, and this game has a special place in my heart, so it deserves something that comes from it.