"The most fun you can have online" was once used as a description for this game. And for many years it was true. Just take a peek at my hours - I love this game.
You'll even see Valve continue to use that slogan even to this very day, despite everything.

These days, you'll have a hard time having fun through any of the official channels Valve offers.
_______________________
=~= Official Competitive =~=
In the official Competitive mode, you'll be lucky to find a match at all. And if you do, there's solid chance the entire enemy team will be cheating.
It was dead on-arrival because Valve made an extremely pitiful attempt to make the game "competitively viable", but then opted to do everything that the competitive community didn't want. So nobody plays it.
Did you know that they are selling a Competitive Matchmaking Pass to access this mode for $10? Did you also know you can play like 2 rounds of Casual mode and buy something (anything) from the Mann Co. Store to access instead? Unless you have a VAC ban of course -- in those cases, Valve will only let you play this dead mode if you pay them $10.
I'm actually not even joking: players with VAC bans in other games can play Valve's official Competitive mode if they pay $10 for the pass.
___________________
=~= Official Casual =~=
In the official Casual mode, a solid chunk of players will be bots.
They might be spamming someone's doxx info in chat, or trying to offer to sell you "immunity" (which doesn't work), or saying that the late Rick May was a pedophile, or something else. It varies from day to day and week to week.
Other times they'll be instantly votekicking human players at random.
They'll usually be micspamming, and they'll usually be setup to teleport whenever your crosshair comes near them, so you can't even hit them.
From time to time, they'll spam the server with data abnormal data packets to cause the players on the server to "time out", which causes any votekick against them to fail.

Another good chunk are real people, but cheaters. Turns out, TF2's version of VAC can be bypassed by just loading your cheat application on a different harddrive than the one TF2 is installed on. I'm not even joking about that, either.
And all of the cheats that bots can use, these human cheaters can use better. Any Scout doing exceedingly well with the Shortstop or Force-a-Nature is highly likely to be a cheater these days.
Nothing but the best for good ol' Team Fortress 2, I guess.

And then another portion of the TF2 player base consists of people who are fine with human cheaters, as long as they "seem chill" in voice chat.
____________________________
=~= Official Mann Vs. Machine =~=
The only mode you can play without finding bots consistently, because there's a paywall.
You'll oftentimes run into people who have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars playing the same set of missions on repeat, day in and day out since the day they released back in late 2013. They're hoping that someday, they'll return a profit on the $4000 they spent on Tour of Duty tickets by finding their sixth $15 Australium SMG.
It can be fun once in a while, but unless you have a thing for playing one of a few roles -- and playing them very specifically -- you're probably gonna get booted by someone with a dedicated chat bind telling you to hit F4.
The only content MvM sees anymore is via Community-run servers -- and it's high quality content too. Valve doesn't officially support any of it except for the odd blog post here and there promoting it.
____________________________

Team Fortress 2 is probably my favorite game of all time. I've made numerous friends through it, and had some of my best gaming-related memories either directly or indirectly from it.
Many others can and will say the same thing. Content creators like Jerma or RTGame started out creating videos for this game when it was at its peak.

It's a genuine shame that the game is where it is, especially considering the influence it has had on other games like Overwatch.
Any other game developer would see this influence and decide to polish the game to be as good as it could be, despite its age. The Valve that created this game is not the Valve that exists today.

This community is so starved for some sort of acknowledgement, that the community gaslit itself into thinking Valve actually had a plan to address these problems. In a five-step plan to address these problems, Valve's first step was making a tweet to acknowledge the issue. And the other four steps have been blank spaces for close to a third of this game's lifetime.

Even with the #SaveTF2/#FixTF2 movements, we will get another tweet if we're lucky, and maybe a manual VAC ban on one of the 800 accounts the bot hosters have. But we're probably not going to get anything substantial or permanent.
I am confident enough in this belief that, if I'm wrong, I'll gift a Strange Unusual Professional Killstreak Shotgun to the first person to add me on the day that the update drops.

For potential new players: I do not recommend this game.
For existing players: Sign the petition at https://save.tf/ -- maybe we can do something for this godforsaken game.

"The most fun you can have online" was once used as a description for this game. And for many years it was true. Just take a peek at my hours - I love this game. You'll even see Valve continue to use that slogan even to this very day, despite everything. These days, you'll have a hard time having fun through any of the official channels Valve offers. _______________________ =~= Official Competitive =~= In the official Competitive mode, you'll be lucky to find a match at all. And if you do, there's solid chance the entire enemy team will be cheating. It was dead on-arrival because Valve made an extremely pitiful attempt to make the game "competitively viable", but then opted to do everything that the competitive community didn't want. So nobody plays it. Did you know that they are selling a Competitive Matchmaking Pass to access this mode for $10? Did you also know you can play like 2 rounds of Casual mode and buy something (anything) from the Mann Co. Store to access instead? Unless you have a VAC ban of course -- in those cases, Valve will only let you play this dead mode if you pay them $10. I'm actually not even joking: players with VAC bans in other games can play Valve's official Competitive mode if they pay $10 for the pass. ___________________ =~= Official Casual =~= In the official Casual mode, a solid chunk of players will be bots. They might be spamming someone's doxx info in chat, or trying to offer to sell you "immunity" (which doesn't work), or saying that the late Rick May was a pedophile, or something else. It varies from day to day and week to week. Other times they'll be instantly votekicking human players at random. They'll usually be micspamming, and they'll usually be setup to teleport whenever your crosshair comes near them, so you can't even hit them. From time to time, they'll spam the server with data abnormal data packets to cause the players on the server to "time out", which causes any votekick against them to fail. Another good chunk are real people, but cheaters. Turns out, TF2's version of VAC can be bypassed by just loading your cheat application on a different harddrive than the one TF2 is installed on. I'm not even joking about that, either. And all of the cheats that bots can use, these human cheaters can use better. Any Scout doing exceedingly well with the Shortstop or Force-a-Nature is highly likely to be a cheater these days. Nothing but the best for good ol' Team Fortress 2, I guess. And then another portion of the TF2 player base consists of people who are fine with human cheaters, as long as they "seem chill" in voice chat. ____________________________ =~= Official Mann Vs. Machine =~= The only mode you can play without finding bots consistently, because there's a paywall. You'll oftentimes run into people who have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars playing the same set of missions on repeat, day in and day out since the day they released back in late 2013. They're hoping that someday, they'll return a profit on the $4000 they spent on Tour of Duty tickets by finding their sixth $15 Australium SMG. It can be fun once in a while, but unless you have a thing for playing one of a few roles -- and playing them very specifically -- you're probably gonna get booted by someone with a dedicated chat bind telling you to hit F4. The only content MvM sees anymore is via Community-run servers -- and it's high quality content too. Valve doesn't officially support any of it except for the odd blog post here and there promoting it. ____________________________ Team Fortress 2 is probably my favorite game of all time. I've made numerous friends through it, and had some of my best gaming-related memories either directly or indirectly from it. Many others can and will say the same thing. Content creators like Jerma or RTGame started out creating videos for this game when it was at its peak. It's a genuine shame that the game is where it is, especially considering the influence it has had on other games like Overwatch. Any other game developer would see this influence and decide to polish the game to be as good as it could be, despite its age. The Valve that created this game is not the Valve that exists today. This community is so starved for some sort of acknowledgement, that the community gaslit itself into thinking Valve actually had a plan to address these problems. In a five-step plan to address these problems, Valve's first step was making a tweet to acknowledge the issue. And the other four steps have been blank spaces for close to a third of this game's lifetime. Even with the #SaveTF2/#FixTF2 movements, we will get another tweet if we're lucky, and maybe a manual VAC ban on one of the 800 accounts the bot hosters have. But we're probably not going to get anything substantial or permanent. I am confident enough in this belief that, if I'm wrong, I'll gift a Strange Unusual Professional Killstreak Shotgun to the first person to add me on the day that the update drops. For potential new players: I do not recommend this game. For existing players: Sign the petition at https://save.tf/ -- maybe we can do something for this godforsaken game.