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.

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.
• Wearing this, the Dr's Dapper Topper, Bill's Hat, Grenadier's Softcap or the Alien Swarm Parasite are the only official ways (as of yet) to display the entirety of the Soldier's eyes.
• 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.
• The hat description was written by AndyAML.
• This is the first all-class hat added into the game.
• This is the only free hat that has an effect like an unusual hat to this date.
• Back when this hat was released, people who did not get the hat, were both mad at losing the items they hat idled for as well as at the users who received the Cheater's Lament for not using external programs. There was so much anger over this matter that some servers even employed negative skins for the Cheater's Lament, to insult those who wore the hat while other servers simply kicked anyone found wearing the hat. On an interesting note, though, people have seemed to easily have forgotten about their past anger about the Cheater's Lament, after they were released to the people who had idled, during the Mann Co. Update.