Spamming

“

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

”

Spamming refers to where a player continually repeats an act within the game. It comes in three forms: Weapon Spamming, Message Spamming, and Building Spamming.

Weapon Spamming

The player, upon equipping a certain weapon, will repeatedly fire at a specific location in order to hopefully damage any enemy that may wander into the general vicinity of the shots. Spam is not to be confused with suppressive fire, a technique involving firing constantly at points of interest on a map in an attempt to discourage an enemy advance.

Weapon Spamming is often associated with classes that have a high damage or weapon fire output, mainly Soldiers, Demomen and Heavies. Projectiles that are difficult to aim, such as Huntsman arrows and Sandman baseballs, are often spammed as well. Searching for cloaked Spies often involves spraying down an area with bullets in the hopes of disrupting the Spy's Cloak. This will not be an instance of spamming if the player recently bumped into the Spy and is therefore aware of their presence. Continually attaching Electro Sappers to buildings does not classify as spamming.

Circumventing Weapon Spamming

An area bombarded by fire can be easily countered. Having a Medic deploy an ÜberCharge on a player can allow them to push through the damage and remove the causes of the spamming. Pyros can also counteract by reflecting enemy projectiles from the area and allow teammates to move forward. Waiting for the spammers to run out of ammo is possible, but not advised in case of nearby Dispensers or ammo packs. Spies equipped with the Dead Ringer may pass easily through the damage blockade and ambush the enemies. Additionally, Scouts equipped with Bonk! Atomic Punch may be able to get past the front lines while still invulnerable. This technique helps 'break up' the enemy spam, as many players will chase a Scout who runs past them.

Message Spamming

Chat Spam

One or more players continually use the in-game text based chat system, to send nonsensical repetitive messages, continually request trades or abuse other players. Usually the chat spammer binds a key to the say command with his message. Eg: Bind l "say Buying Name Tags

Micspam

See also: Voice chat

In Micspam, a player uses the in-game VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system to repeatedly send messages to other 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, many 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. Another program, HLDJ, was used before the Hatless Update introduced the Silk codec. Players could use its binds to play sound clips, music, and looping unpleasant sounds. It was frowned upon in most servers and got the user kicked or banned.

Quietspam

In Quietspam a player uses the in-game VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system to continuously emit silence; only the notice displaying the name of the quietspammer is visible. Its purpose is to confuse other players. It sometimes ends with a surprising Loudspam.

Loudspam

In Loudspam a player uses the in-game VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system to send nonsensical sound at a high volume, edited purposefully to affect other players' ability to listen for key in-game sounds such as incoming players or uncloaking Spies, or simply to cause pain and damage their hearing.

Voice Commands Spam

“

Need a dispenser here! Need a dispenser here! Need a dispenser here! ... — The Scout

”

In voice command spam, a player makes abuse of the Voice Commands that are pre-defined calls used to organize a team or call for help repeatedly. For other players it mainly affects their ability to read the in-game text chat, being flooded by the transcripted voice commands used. Voice Commands Spamming frequently occurs in servers that have the tf_max_voice_speak_delay disabled. Other times a player can repeatedly call for Medic, which results in not only flooding the chat box, but also confusing friendly medics.

Ways to Counteract

• Often, 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 easily be remedied if a Server Admin is present, as they have the ability to prevent a player from using Voice Chat and/or text Chat. However, some Admins might ignore 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 in 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.)