Spamming

“

You're all a bunch of no-hopers! Click to listen — The Sniper

”

Spamming refers to the act of doing something repeatedly. It comes in three forms: Weapon Spamming, Message Spamming, and Building Spamming.

Weapon Spamming

This occurs when a player repeatedly fires their weapon at a specific location rather than at a specific person. The main reason this is done is to put out damage at an area that players are likely to stand. Another reason why players utilize Weapon Spamming is to deter enemies from entering a specific area such as a Choke Point or point of interest such as a Control Point or Intelligence room (suppressive fire). Weapon Spamming is often associated with Soldiers and Demomen due to the nature of their primary weapons, though patches to these classes' ammo capacity has reduced this problem somewhat.

It is not to be confused with:

• Searching for cloaked Spies by firing randomly.
• Continuously sapping an enemy building in order to destroy it.

This technique is considered to be annoying to some players due to its perceived effectiveness without required skill.

Ways to counteract

• The best way to deal with weapon spam is to team up with a Medic and build up an ÜberCharge to push forward through the opposing team's barrage.
• With the Pyro's Compression blast, you may be able to reflect some of the projectiles back at your enemy or at least out of harm's way with quick timing.
• Sometimes if a spammer runs out of ammo, you might be able to catch them off guard while they are reloading or trying to find an ammo pickup, or a nearby Dispenser.
• As a Spy you may be able to sport a Dead Ringer and safely feign death to get through the spam.

Message Spamming

Message Spamming includes both Chat Spamming and Voice Spamming.

In Chat Spamming, a player repeatedly uses the in-game, text based chat system to send messages. These messages can be anything from trade requests to offensive comments. Chat spamming is done by manual typing, repeatedly using copy/paste via the clipboard, or by binding a key to a specific message using the say command.

In Voice Spamming, a player uses the in-game, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system to repeatedly send messages to players. Unlike Chat Spamming, players can get a lot more creative by using a number of sound effects, voice clips, or music from an external program. Voice Spamming frequently occurs in servers that have the sv_alltalk command enabled. While some players find it amusing, most players consider this an annoyance, as this may break their concentration or affect their ability to listen for key in-game sounds such as incoming players or uncloaking Spies. In addition, Voice Spamming can make it very difficult to listen to a teammate's alerts or responses. Fortunately, this can be counter-acted with a simple muting.

Message spamming can be used in a positive manner, however, many times it is considered to be negative as it is an annoyance to players.

Ways to Counteract

• Oftentimes simply asking the spammer to stop will work if they're considerate enough.
• If a player is Voice Spamming, use the Main Menu and select the Mute Players option to silence them.
• Message spamming can be easily remedied if a Sever Admin is present. A Server Admin has the ability to prevent a player from using Voice Chat and/or text Chat. However, some Admins will ignore the Message Spamming depending on the rules of the server.

Building Spam

See also: Turtling

In most cases, Engineers will lay down multiple Sentry Guns and Dispensers is order to block off any attackers from certain locations.

Sometimes, Engineer spammers will construct multiple Teleporters to try to grief the team, including having Teleporter entrances mid-map send the team back to the start, or into bugged or glitched areas where the Teleported player cannot escape (however, most of the teleporter glitching areas have been fixed by Valve.)