The solution is to first open console. By default, it's disabled. So from the menu screen, (or if you're in a match press ESC button);

Go to options. And then click on "Advanced..." and enable developer console there.

Proceed by pressing " ~ " key on your keyboard. If your keyboard does not have the " ~ " key, then you need to change the console keybind in keyboard settings under options.


Now, finally, type " retry " without quotes, into console, whenever you're stuck in spectator mode.

It will automatically "retry" connecting you to the server. Which will then fix your game and allow you to play.


Alternate Solution (Thanks to μing in comments)
type " spectate " in console without quotes. This will fix you without even having to reconnect, and you'll be able to select a team.

Being killed by a player you didn't even see in front of you or anywhere near you? And then the Death-Cam™ zooms in on some invisible person in the enemy's spawn?

This is a bug caused by lag. More specifically, you lagging.

I tend to do this "record #" command in console every time I lag/stutter in-game, just in case it may have caused something wacky.


For some reason, sometimes when you lag in TF2 it can cause crazy bugs like that, for only you. Engineers upside down, players invisible, MVM robots appearing giant when they're actually normal sized. (annoying as hell when that happens)



Open console (refer to the previous fix if you don't know how) and then type in "record 4"

Now, type in "stopdemo" or "stop",

This, for some reason, will reset all the visual bugs you are experiencing personally, and locally.

For some reason starting a demo (a tf2 recording) does this. Just make sure to also type stop or else you'll be recording yourself in TF2 for no reason.


Also, FYI, what you type after "record" can be anything. It's just what you're calling the recording. So you can type "record #" or "record MyFatherInTheShower" etc.



Bonus Fun Fact:

Did you know that in MvM, the cash disappears because it's burning? If you actually look at the cash closely you can see bits of ember and fire around the cash, which then are (canonically) burning the cash away!

The lore behind this is that the robots actually run on money via the rich Graymann, instead of gasoline or something, for some reason!

I never realized this about the cash until like, at least, 4,000hrs into TF2. It's a good detail to know, instead of just believing it vanishes for no reason.