AI Takeover: Bots Launching Sham Votes Against Legit Players in TF2

Team Fortress 2 (TF2), once known for its vibrant gaming community, is currently facing a serious threat. Bots, operating with nefarious intent, have begun orchestrating fraudulent voting schemes directed at unsuspecting normal players those who choose to play the game without exploiting unfair advantages. This guide will help you distinguish between bots and genuine players, enabling you to avoid falling for their provocations.

Introduction

English | Russian (Русский)

Every counts: in the face of ongoing attacks from bot hosters, our guide is slipping down the rankings. This means fewer people are informed about the bot invasion, misunderstanding why they've been kicked, and being in the dark about the truth.









I am ready to fight robots.

Team Fortress 2 (TF2), once known for its vibrant gaming community, is currently facing a serious threat. Bots, operating with nefarious intent, have begun orchestrating fraudulent voting schemes directed at unsuspecting normal players those who choose to play the game without exploiting unfair advantages.

This guide will help you distinguish between bots and genuine players, enabling you to avoid falling for their provocations.

How to distinguish a bot from a real player?

1. Bots often use the same nicknames:

Nickname	SteamID
Commodore	[U:1:1255599981]
Fermented *** water	[U:1:1255365678]
girlkisser	[U:1:1609771942]
Siônio	[U:1:1255753310]
xX_GlizzyAssasin_Xx	[U:1:1256583530]
ThaGOAT	[U:1:1255415477]
HD HH Gregg	[U:1:1255800334]
✪ DaDax42	[U:1:1255694763]
Hush	[U:1:1255297981]
the massive	[U:1:1255364742]
Bong Water	[U:1:1568170605]
Cramik	[U:1:1583930802]
Thomas	[U:1:1255712508]
extra virgin oil	[U:1:1562997510]
itucs	[U:1:1255456087]
Piper	[U:1:1562555780]
The ♥♥♥♥♥ Margaret Thatcher	[U:1:1566990257]
✪ Julian	[U:1:1562734280]
RamboJambo	[U:1:1255432472]
Trash Panda	[U:1:1583081857]
Hyer Womba	[U:1:1562485915]

2. Most often, you can identify a bot by the way it moves. It often looks around and can get stuck anywhere.
3. If you initiate a vote to kick a bot, he will instantly say a template message in chat.
4. As soon as a swarm of bots forms, they begin initiating votes to kick legit players (non-cheaters). Until this swarm is formed, they're just playing.
5. These bots often use compromised accounts, which is why they may have any items equipped.
6. When one of the bots initiates a vote, a swarm of bots, even across different teams, triggers and says a template message, such as "F1" or "kick bot."
7. When the bot operator shuts down the server with the cheating bot instances, all the bots immediately leave the server. You can thus see their nicknames in the chat and send them in the comments under this guide.

How to prevent accidental kicks of legit players?

Unfortunately, this is quite challenging, as it requires vigilant monitoring of each player's behavior. One potential method entails asking a player a simple math question in the chat, such as 'What is 5+5?' (Yes, regrettably, it has come to this).

Additionally, when legitimate players initiate votes, it's advisable not to use generic chat templates like 'f1 kick him', as it may give the impression of bot-like behavior. It's better to add complexity to the message to differentiate it from bot behavior.

Screenshots

In this video, you can see the inhuman movements of a bot playing as the Heavy class under the nickname "Poop."

Bots can now play as any class, including Engineer (placing sentries in random locations), Scout, Demoman, and others.



In this video, we observe the Engineer with name BluJay, who is definitely not human, judging by his movement. What's even funnier is that this Engineer is looking at another bot, already playing under the Heavy class.

Then this seemingly harmless Engineer initiated a vote to kick a regular player.



In this screenshot, you can see how the bot "Titanium" initiates a vote and immediately writes the templated phrase "kikc bot" "F1". They usually do this in a swarm, but this time, something seems to have gone wrong.

Therefore, the good advice when kicking a cheater: do not use a templated response; try to complicate the message so that it is distinguishable from that of a bot.


In this screenshot, suddenly, you can see all players disconnected! But it turned out to be a massive swarm of the bots that had taken over the server. Yes, sometimes it happens, unfortunately...



It seemed like I connected to the server for literally 5 seconds, but here's the problem: a swarm of bots had already taken over the server and was kicking regular players. The most important thing is for legit players not to fall for these votes, as otherwise the game will suffer.

Conclusion

I hope this guide is of some help to you. If we can push this guide to the top, more players will approach voting in a more thoughtful manner and refrain from kicking genuine players.

If you need any further assistance or have additional material to discuss, feel free to ask.

P.S. Apologies for the awkward formatting; this is my first time writing a guide.

[Doctor X]

Together we can survive this invasion.
Bonk the RObot

[Licemer]

thanks man

[ZoNg]

I find this topic about bots accidently and i'm a human. This person help me to realize that half of the team a bots and in most of situations they're kick for nothing. Thanks man.

[󠁳⁧⁧devabrain]

Hello, thank you for your note. We replaced the term "ban" with "kick".

No, multiple kicks of cheating bots do not result in a ban across all Valve servers.

When a kick vote concludes, the server temporarily bans the player (depending on server settings). So, after some time, the same cheater or the accidentaly kicked player can join the same server.

You can read more about it here: https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Voting

Here's to hoping that someday we'll tackle these mischievous machines, but for now:
Happy New Year 2024!

[Toast]

Do bans actually happen if a player is kicked enough times? Or were you just referring to being kicked. In my mind, a ban is something more permanent than just being kicked.

[XTREMEVIOLENCEMASTER420]

If you can't tell if a player is a bot instantly you genuinely have brain damage and should stop using computers. People like you make me hate this game.

[Truмan]

It seems that the hosts of these cheating bots have started attacking the guide with dislikes, so we quickly dropped from the top to the bottom.

To spread the word about these bots to more players, everyone needs to like this guide; more views will not push the guide forward.

Moreover, likes increase the chance that someone like Robin Walker, a developer of Team Fortress 2, will take notice when opening the Steam overlay. Anything is possible.

Thank you in advance! Together, we can achieve a lot, but alone we can achieve nothing.

[k]

Thanks!
Now Imma kicking all players saying "F1" and "Kick bot"

[Truмan]

evil.wizard1986, and that's saying L4D2 player, okay

[Crispy]

lmao ow2 players coping because they dont have community support