Cheater's Lament

“

Heartwarming. Click to listen — The Spy on honesty

”

The Cheater's Lament is a headwear item available to all classes. It appears as a glowing, golden halo attached to the wearer's head by two wires. It was awarded on the 2nd of September 2009 to all players who had not used external idling programs and had played at least once since the introduction of the item system. As such, it is not obtainable through the regular item drop system or acquired through crafting. During the Mann-Conomy Update the hat was dropped a second time for players who did not receive it during the initial drop. This includes those who used external idle programs prior to the 2nd of September 2009, and did not receive it during the first drop.

The hat description was written by AndyAML.

Controversy

The Cheater's Lament has attracted incredible controversy since the update nicknamed the 'Halocaust'. Many people thought that this hat was treating the 'Dirty Idlers' unfairly, and campaigned against it. These campaigns ranged from simple modifications replacing the model with various swear words to complete bans from servers for wearing it. Others campaigned for the Lament, thinking it a fair punishment deserved by the external idling program users. The aggravation still continues, although it has calmed severely, but now that the Cheater's Lament has for some reason been dropped to all players, it has hit a plateu.

Examples of 'anti-halo' campaigns were:

• Refusal to heal Lament wearing players
• Kicking/Banning of Lament wearing players
• Remodels/retextures of the Lament into various swear words.

Examples of 'pro-halo' campaigns were:

• Refusal to heal Non-Lament wearing players
• Deliberate griefing of Non-Lament wearing players

Trivia

• When players viewed their backpacks after receiving the Cheater's Lament on 2nd of September 2009, the following message was displayed: "Congratulations! Your honesty has been rewarded with a new hat!". The message did not appear however, when the item was awarded to the community during the Mann-Conomy Update.
• When this hat is equipped by the Scout, his headset is not removed.
• Valve released statistics that showed only 4.5% of Team Fortress 2 players were not given a halo during the initial drop.
• Despite its name, VAC-banned players were still eligible to receive this hat.