Disgruntled Group Fortress 2 gamers bind 340,000 signatures right into a e book and hand-deliver it to Valve

Over 340,000 Group Fortress gamers have amassed as a part of the continuing #SaveTF2 marketing campaign, lending their signatures to an anti-bot petition that has now been lovingly assembled right into a hardback tome and hand-delivered to Valve’s places of work in Washington.

#SaveTF2 was born in 2022, amid a bot scenario so extreme, it was threatening to make Valve’s traditional team-based shooter actually unplayable. The group confronted day by day battle bots utilizing Game-ruining hacks, racist usernames, disruptive noises in voice chat, and worse – and with Valve doing little to assist, Gamers even took to preventing bots with bots of their very own.

Fortunately, although, the group’s first orchestrated #SaveTF2 marketing campaign was successful, drawing Valve’s consideration and a pledge it was “working to enhance issues”. That promise culminated in a mass bot ban, however the nuisances finally returned – resulting in a second #SaveTF2 marketing campaign in 2024, this time within the type of a petition calling for the sport’s “persistent and steady maintenance” to make sure these naughty bots stay in test.

And spherical two of the marketing campaign has had a equally optimistic impact, with Valve initiating one other wave of bot bans earlier this yr. However with the Petition finally attracting over 343,700 signatures, its creator – YouTube TheWhat – determined it might need extra of an impression in bodily kind, serving as a everlasting reminder of the Group Fortress 2 group’s enduring love of the sport, if it may very well be positioned in Valve’s fingers.

And so these signatures (thanks PC Gamer) had been was a literal hardback tome spanning a whole bunch of pages – a “image of the astounding quantity of those who love TF2 and need to see it flourish”, as TheWhat put it on social media. The e book then obtained its very personal flashily cinematic reveal video earlier than being whisked off to Washington, the place – as seen in TheWhat’s more moderen replace – it was deposited in a conspicuous place someplace in Valve’s foyer.

Whether or not the e book has now made its method upstairs and into Valve’s inside sanctum is unclear, however it’s arduous to not admire the mere existence of the factor, and the form of ceaselessly passionate fandom it represents. As for the Group Fortress 2 group, there are blended opinions on how the e book will likely be acquired. “It’s going to most definitely be cherished by the folks at Valve,” one poster on the TF2 subreddit wrote. “They will use it as bathroom paper,” one other much less optimist soul added, “I hope my identify touches Gabe’s asshole.”