Just not fun anymore. Valve has been repeatedly making questionable changes to the game since 2015 and otherwise completely neglecting it.

Until recently the game's been plagued by bots, and even now that those are gone (after over 300.000 petition signatures and lots of bad press were needed for Valve to get off their butts and do the bare minimum) the game is still rather (human) cheater infested, as VAC is more of a suggestion than a proper anti-cheat.

And even aside from the cheaters, ever since the Blue Moon update implementing Glicko, the game has been borderline unplayable. 9/10 matches are ridiculously stacked beyond measure, with one team always being clearly better than the other and utterly steamrolling them. Sometimes I'm being put on the team with the Unusual Hat wearing, platinum prestige veterans that can land airshots across the map, other times I'm being put in the other team, with 5 gibus snipers, making winning or losing a complete coin flip, with me seemingly having no input on it whatsoever. Seeing decent players on BOTH teams is very, very rare, and one team has red and purple medals making me question how poorly the supposed Glicko SBMM was implemented and wether or not it is bugged with how aggressively it seems to stack all the medium- to low skilled players on one team and all the purple- and red medals on the other.

Now, you might think "But you have 2400+ hours in this game, surely you're great at this game and you can carry some noobs!"

No. No I can't. Sure, I used to binge this game when I was younger, but not only do I play this game very irregularly and casual now since the Gun Mettle update (I only have a Blue medal, to give you an idea how little I played afterwards), but I'm also not very young anymore. And even IF I was still that energy drink addicted 16 year old that didn't play anything else all day, carrying a team of free-to-plays that can't even call for a medic against a team of well communicated veterans is not realistic to ask of anyone, even when queuing with friends. Nor is it fun and neither should I even be required to in a game mode called CASUAL which I want to play CASUALLY.

All of this, plus the lack of auto-scramble in casual, makes casual, ironically, not very casual play friendly at all, resulting in on average it taking me 30-60 minutes of queuing casual to find a single, decent, balanced match where I don't have to resort to playing Phlog Pyro to even get my team out of spawn. This just isn't fun, nor worth my time. And I think it's not worth yours either.

Sure, when you find that legendary 1 in 10 good match, the game's great. But I swear, all that time I've spent so far on being steamrolled by a team of Platinum Prestige Players or hopping between casual matches trying to find a good one, I could've completed half my backlog of other games. Maybe even learn a foreign language or two on top of that. And I regret that dearly.

Community servers are better, sure, but in Europe your selection is extremely limited, your choices being either poorly moderated Skial 24/7 2Fort, Hightower, Turbine and Dustbowl servers with slurs and cheaters galore, or well moderated but high skill-floor Uncletopia servers on which someone who play's the game casually simply can not compete or have fun on.

This used to be my favorite multiplayer game of all time. And It probably still would be, if not for Valve's repeated poor management and ignoring of player feedback.

If you live outside of the US and don't have friends to play with, I can't recommend this game anymore. The European- and Asian Casual- and Community server experience is for the most part absolutely terrible.

Just not fun anymore. Valve has been repeatedly making questionable changes to the game since 2015 and otherwise completely neglecting it. Until recently the game's been plagued by bots, and even now that those are gone (after over 300.000 petition signatures and lots of bad press were needed for Valve to get off their butts and do the bare minimum) the game is still rather (human) cheater infested, as VAC is more of a suggestion than a proper anti-cheat. And even aside from the cheaters, ever since the Blue Moon update implementing Glicko, the game has been borderline unplayable. 9/10 matches are ridiculously stacked beyond measure, with one team always being clearly better than the other and utterly steamrolling them. Sometimes I'm being put on the team with the Unusual Hat wearing, platinum prestige veterans that can land airshots across the map, other times I'm being put in the other team, with 5 gibus snipers, making winning or losing a complete coin flip, with me seemingly having no input on it whatsoever. Seeing decent players on BOTH teams is very, very rare, and one team has red and purple medals making me question how poorly the supposed Glicko SBMM was implemented and wether or not it is bugged with how aggressively it seems to stack all the medium- to low skilled players on one team and all the purple- and red medals on the other. Now, you might think "But you have 2400+ hours in this game, surely you're great at this game and you can carry some noobs!" No. No I can't. Sure, I used to binge this game when I was younger, but not only do I play this game very irregularly and casual now since the Gun Mettle update (I only have a Blue medal, to give you an idea how little I played afterwards), but I'm also not very young anymore. And even IF I was still that energy drink addicted 16 year old that didn't play anything else all day, carrying a team of free-to-plays that can't even call for a medic against a team of well communicated veterans is not realistic to ask of anyone, even when queuing with friends. Nor is it fun and neither should I even be required to in a game mode called CASUAL which I want to play CASUALLY. All of this, plus the lack of auto-scramble in casual, makes casual, ironically, not very casual play friendly at all, resulting in on average it taking me 30-60 minutes of queuing casual to find a single, decent, balanced match where I don't have to resort to playing Phlog Pyro to even get my team out of spawn. This just isn't fun, nor worth my time. And I think it's not worth yours either. Sure, when you find that legendary 1 in 10 good match, the game's great. But I swear, all that time I've spent so far on being steamrolled by a team of Platinum Prestige Players or hopping between casual matches trying to find a good one, I could've completed half my backlog of other games. Maybe even learn a foreign language or two on top of that. And I regret that dearly. Community servers are better, sure, but in Europe your selection is extremely limited, your choices being either poorly moderated Skial 24/7 2Fort, Hightower, Turbine and Dustbowl servers with slurs and cheaters galore, or well moderated but high skill-floor Uncletopia servers on which someone who play's the game casually simply can not compete or have fun on. This used to be my favorite multiplayer game of all time. And It probably still would be, if not for Valve's repeated poor management and ignoring of player feedback. If you live outside of the US and don't have friends to play with, I can't recommend this game anymore. The European- and Asian Casual- and Community server experience is for the most part absolutely terrible.