This week's Team Service Announcement covers a community issue, instead of gameplay.

There are certain servers that force players to watch a twenty second ad before playing to fund themselves. These servers are usually underpopulated because nobody wants to sit through an ad when they just want to play the game. That's why these servers fill themselves with bots running Steam accounts to make it seem like it's well populated but has space for more players.

So why is this an issue?

Most people come into a server looking for a game with good players, challenging opponents, and cooperative teammates. These bots are none of these things, and are instead, just bad at video games. (Save for the occasional aimbot) They are programmed to play very simply and execute a few essential tactics, but do not communicate, and are no match for even novice players. It's very irritating to sit through an ad that continues to play even after the mandatory 20 seconds, and end up with idiotic players that keep tripping over their own faulty programming.

If you find yourself playing on one of these bot-filled servers, disconnect, report it by pressing F7, and blacklist the server, so you don't end up going back and funding the server. You can also skip ads by disabling HTML message of the days in the Advanced options menu.

Also, if you enjoy, and frequently visit a certain server, donate a few dollars to it so it doesn't have to resort to using unskippable ads just to stay afloat.

If you really want to kill bots all day, go into training mode, or play MvM. Don't give these servers money.


It's pretty easy to tell the inhuman behaviors of a bot, but here's a list of a few telltale signs to help you tell them from humans. If everyone, or most of the players on a server do these things, you're playing with bots.

1.) Most Bots do not use unlockable weapons or wear cosmetic items.
Even the newest players have at least one unique weapon, a Mercenary Badge, Ghastly Gibus, or Pyrovision Goggles. Bots just jump into the game without customizing their loadouts. However, some servers can grant their bots cosmetics and weapons on that server only, so this might not always be the case.

2.) Very little movement.
Bots don't move around as much as human players. On the attacking team, during the setup phase, they don't move at all, aside from Medics healing to get Ubercharge.

3.) Faulty programming makes bots inhumanly stupid.
Miscalculations in programming will have bots running into walls, or trying to jump onto a ledge forever, or Snipers standing in spots the enemy team's Snipers should be.

4.) Sudden jumps in skill among inhumanly bad gameplay.
Sometimes Pyros will be able to reflect projectiles shot from behind them at the last possible second while trying to give a wall the business.

5.) Bots prioritize humans over other bots.
Enemy bots will focus on you instead of the army of Heavies blasting away at them, because they know you're probably better than them. Friendly Medics will also prioritize and pocket you over all other bots on the team if you call for them.

6.) Overly aggressive support classes
Engineers, Medics, and Snipers will often times run out in the middle of battle blasting away at enemies for the entire game for no reason.

7.) Bots ignore health and ammo packs
Even when badly wounded bots will leave heath and ammo pickups for players.

8.) Bots tend to clump up and fire at the same target.
Said target is usually you, another human player, or one bot that wandered away from the rest of it's team.

You can also switch to Soldier, call for a Medic, and stare at him when he comes to you. If the Medic does nothing until you move, he's most likely a bot.
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"Team Service Announcement" is a series where the common mistakes and unused strategies of new and inexperienced players are blown out of proportion and explained in an attempt to help those who make them. This week I did it on something else, but it's usually about helping dudes be good at TF2.

If you know someone who's new to the game, is in need of some pointers, or just want to spread the message, share the videos and help improve the community.
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Music:
Luciano Michelini - Frolic
TV on the Radio - Mercy
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Patreon:
http://www.patreon.com/krunkidile