Team Fortress 2 is in a state right now as bots have plagued its online for over two years, slinging bigoted rhetoric in the chat while aimbotting real players, making them an inescapable headache. And people have had enough, so much so that the community is staging a peaceful protest to raise awareness.
"#SaveTF2, May 26 - TF2 means so much to so many!" the post opened. "The community has gone through a lot, but now TF2 is in an unplayable state. We creators have decided to unite and share our love and care for TF2 - will you join us?"
The creators listed are Casperr, Big Joey, Peterscraps, LazyPurple, Elmaxo, Dewill, Toofty, Wolt, Cenoo, Delak, Berd, Shork, HoovyTube, SqumJim, SolarLight, Raw, Mittems, Laurennitiu, Milk Ape, J_PEG, JBird, Great Blue, SpikeyMikey, Samwiz, Wamo, Bearded Expense, RocketManFran, PyroJoe, RubberMango, TheAverageTF2P, WeezyTF2, OrangeGlazer, Oris TV, and FoeKoe.
As for the more info mentioned in the embedded post, the idea behind the peaceful protest is to bring attention to the botting issue, raising awareness through social media by utilising the hashtag while posting. But to maximise this, the protestors are imploring others to join in on May 26 from 10 am PDT specifically to digitally yell out in one big boom, hoping Valve hears.
They ask that you post on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, "anywhere", with the tag #SaveTF2. But they also stress that it's a peaceful protest and that they "love the game", asking others not to send hate Valve's way. This is something that Portal, Half-Life, and Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek echoed earlier this month, stressing that the community needs to be respectful because there are real people behind the scenes and that harassment isn't the answer.
While the post has gained traction with plenty of big TF2 names supporting it, r/gaming ultimately removed the thread. However, it's still going to take place tomorrow so, if you want to chip in and show your support to the TF2 community, pop a post on your timeline.