Hi; so I'm making this thread because TF2 is a cesspool in terms of community and official servers so I thought it'd be neat to name off servers that are actually good. Feel free to name ones off yourself and favorite the ones I list.
Potato's MvM Servers (Always Active) - Potato's servers offer a wide variety of MvM custom maps and gamemodes. There is zombie survival, L4D-styled zombie survival, roguelike mode, vanilla - tons of fun. I recommend you play these servers over vanilla MvM because it's just superior in every single way. They even have a few experimental custom weapons and upgrades on some of the servers.
Weird Russian Servers (Always Active) - So I've noticed there's a ton of servers that are named in Russian text and are similar to 2Fort 24/7 DMfest servers, but they run these really odd-looking maps usually using HL2 and CS: Source assets. They're pretty neat to chill on honestly.
MvM Randomizer/Roguelikemod (Very Active) - Ever wanted to play Mann vs. Machine with a randomizer? What about a Mann vs. Machine with roguelike upgrades? How about both? Because this server has players assigned with a randomized loadout, with upgrades pertaining to the loadout you were given. My only issue is it gets a bit repetitive after some time. Would recommend.
castaway.tf
(Semi-Active) - The castaway community while annoying and is good to just mute and hud_saytext_time 0, is actually the closest thing you're gonna get to old TF2. A lot of the cosmetics people wear on the server are from the classic era of the game and the maps they mostly run are either a handful of old custom maps, or the launch ones and asteroid and cactuscanyon. The server reverts your weapons back to their original state so you can feel that authentic old TF2 feel before comp players ruined it.
redsun.tf (Semi-Active) - The community is a complete mess. Immediately disable hud_saytext_time, voice chat, and sprays and decals upon joining to avoid cultural rot. However, this community loves to run a ton of really fun custom gamemodes besides deathrun and you'll have a blast goofing around on it. The amount of custom gamemodes this server offers is insane, but one of the issues with the server is they run VSH, deathrun, and dodgeball way too often. Despite this you will come across things like gungame, super zombie fortress, and even a recreation of SCP: Secret Laboratory in TF2.
-[DISC-FF.com]- Freak vs Freak (Semi-Active) - This one is weird; it's Freak Fortress 2 but both teams play as the bosses with different abilities they use on each other as if it was movement shooter DOTA. There are some recognizable faces like Soldine, Nightmare Medic, Painis Cupcake, etc., but a majority of the freaks of course aren't even from the TF2 Freak Universe wiki, which is an unfortunate downside most if not all Freak Fortress 2 servers have.
Zesty Vanilla Servers (Semi-Active) - So imagine castaway but without the reverts and a community of soycacas and nusois. That is Zesty's servers except the servers for some reason lack a few weapons like the Short Circuit because Zesty is a whiny baby who says it doesn't fit TF2 for some unknown reason. Still better than casual by a long shot and despite a plurality of the maps played being payload, it's actually quite fun.
BLW.TF SUPER ZOMBIE FORTRESS (Semi-Active) - I know the name is scary since it's BLW.TF, but this is a really good server if you're enthusiastic about playing Super Zombie Fortress. To explain what that is exactly, the RED team has to gather weapons pertaining to their current classes and run through a gauntlet of zombies that the other team is playing as, and when a RED team member dies they join the BLU team and even have a chance to become a TF2 version of a L4D2 special infected. Fair warning that there are a few cringe maps on it.
Wolves Den 18+ (Semi-Active) - OK so this is a pretty trash server but the only reason why I put it here is because it has some cool fun maps I recommend you download by joining the server. That's literally it LELZ.
SG-Gaming.net - Freak Fortress Custom! & Panda-Community.com | Freak Fortress 2 (Semi-Active) - So these are normal Freak Fortress 2 servers but half of the freaks on them actually originate from the TF2 Freak Universe wiki. While there aren't too many freaks to pick from, it's really nice to see servers that at least has some level of respect for the OG TF2 Freak community like Freak Fortress Forever had.
DixieDandy (Barely Active) - Ran by SouthernNinja, this server is similar to castaway except it's superior in that its community is actually decent when you sweep aside the drama. It has reverts, good maps - basically just castaway premium edition.
Bad Weapon Rehabilitation (Barely Active) - This server is almost never active, but when it is it's a lot of fun because the server attempts to remaster weapons that are garbage instead of reverting them or leaving them as is. I'm pretty sure the server has a command to vote to add bots but I forget honestly.
BLW.TF | CLASS WARS | MAP ROTATION (Barely Active) - I physically cannot understand why people would wanna play generic class wars Dustbowl over something with more variety. It sucks that Delfy's old custom map class wars with custom modes server is dead because I used to have a lot of fun on it. This server is at least active sometimes.
Coolstuff's Stabby Server - (Never Active) - castaway except nobody's playing this dead-ass game LMFAO.
goofballs.moe - (Never Active) - Yet another revert server. This one has custom maps too.
OSAKATOPIA - (Never Active) - Y'know it's a shame nobody really gives a Cabbage about old TF2 anymore. A lot of TF2 players are either here for the stupid trading and unusuals, character shipping, YouTubers, wholesome chungus community, etc.. All these people will larp and be dilettante representatives of old TF2 culture while a majority of the real playerbase has moved onto new things because they realized life isn't about playing the same video game over and over. I guess that makes me a slight exception.
![[Image: Team_Fortress_2_Group_Photo.jpg]](https://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/8/88/Team_Fortress_2_Group_Photo.jpg)
Potato's MvM Servers (Always Active) - Potato's servers offer a wide variety of MvM custom maps and gamemodes. There is zombie survival, L4D-styled zombie survival, roguelike mode, vanilla - tons of fun. I recommend you play these servers over vanilla MvM because it's just superior in every single way. They even have a few experimental custom weapons and upgrades on some of the servers.
Weird Russian Servers (Always Active) - So I've noticed there's a ton of servers that are named in Russian text and are similar to 2Fort 24/7 DMfest servers, but they run these really odd-looking maps usually using HL2 and CS: Source assets. They're pretty neat to chill on honestly.
MvM Randomizer/Roguelikemod (Very Active) - Ever wanted to play Mann vs. Machine with a randomizer? What about a Mann vs. Machine with roguelike upgrades? How about both? Because this server has players assigned with a randomized loadout, with upgrades pertaining to the loadout you were given. My only issue is it gets a bit repetitive after some time. Would recommend.
castaway.tf
(Semi-Active) - The castaway community while annoying and is good to just mute and hud_saytext_time 0, is actually the closest thing you're gonna get to old TF2. A lot of the cosmetics people wear on the server are from the classic era of the game and the maps they mostly run are either a handful of old custom maps, or the launch ones and asteroid and cactuscanyon. The server reverts your weapons back to their original state so you can feel that authentic old TF2 feel before comp players ruined it.redsun.tf (Semi-Active) - The community is a complete mess. Immediately disable hud_saytext_time, voice chat, and sprays and decals upon joining to avoid cultural rot. However, this community loves to run a ton of really fun custom gamemodes besides deathrun and you'll have a blast goofing around on it. The amount of custom gamemodes this server offers is insane, but one of the issues with the server is they run VSH, deathrun, and dodgeball way too often. Despite this you will come across things like gungame, super zombie fortress, and even a recreation of SCP: Secret Laboratory in TF2.
-[DISC-FF.com]- Freak vs Freak (Semi-Active) - This one is weird; it's Freak Fortress 2 but both teams play as the bosses with different abilities they use on each other as if it was movement shooter DOTA. There are some recognizable faces like Soldine, Nightmare Medic, Painis Cupcake, etc., but a majority of the freaks of course aren't even from the TF2 Freak Universe wiki, which is an unfortunate downside most if not all Freak Fortress 2 servers have.
Zesty Vanilla Servers (Semi-Active) - So imagine castaway but without the reverts and a community of soycacas and nusois. That is Zesty's servers except the servers for some reason lack a few weapons like the Short Circuit because Zesty is a whiny baby who says it doesn't fit TF2 for some unknown reason. Still better than casual by a long shot and despite a plurality of the maps played being payload, it's actually quite fun.
BLW.TF SUPER ZOMBIE FORTRESS (Semi-Active) - I know the name is scary since it's BLW.TF, but this is a really good server if you're enthusiastic about playing Super Zombie Fortress. To explain what that is exactly, the RED team has to gather weapons pertaining to their current classes and run through a gauntlet of zombies that the other team is playing as, and when a RED team member dies they join the BLU team and even have a chance to become a TF2 version of a L4D2 special infected. Fair warning that there are a few cringe maps on it.
Wolves Den 18+ (Semi-Active) - OK so this is a pretty trash server but the only reason why I put it here is because it has some cool fun maps I recommend you download by joining the server. That's literally it LELZ.
SG-Gaming.net - Freak Fortress Custom! & Panda-Community.com | Freak Fortress 2 (Semi-Active) - So these are normal Freak Fortress 2 servers but half of the freaks on them actually originate from the TF2 Freak Universe wiki. While there aren't too many freaks to pick from, it's really nice to see servers that at least has some level of respect for the OG TF2 Freak community like Freak Fortress Forever had.
DixieDandy (Barely Active) - Ran by SouthernNinja, this server is similar to castaway except it's superior in that its community is actually decent when you sweep aside the drama. It has reverts, good maps - basically just castaway premium edition.
Bad Weapon Rehabilitation (Barely Active) - This server is almost never active, but when it is it's a lot of fun because the server attempts to remaster weapons that are garbage instead of reverting them or leaving them as is. I'm pretty sure the server has a command to vote to add bots but I forget honestly.
BLW.TF | CLASS WARS | MAP ROTATION (Barely Active) - I physically cannot understand why people would wanna play generic class wars Dustbowl over something with more variety. It sucks that Delfy's old custom map class wars with custom modes server is dead because I used to have a lot of fun on it. This server is at least active sometimes.
Coolstuff's Stabby Server - (Never Active) - castaway except nobody's playing this dead-ass game LMFAO.
goofballs.moe - (Never Active) - Yet another revert server. This one has custom maps too.
OSAKATOPIA - (Never Active) - Y'know it's a shame nobody really gives a Cabbage about old TF2 anymore. A lot of TF2 players are either here for the stupid trading and unusuals, character shipping, YouTubers, wholesome chungus community, etc.. All these people will larp and be dilettante representatives of old TF2 culture while a majority of the real playerbase has moved onto new things because they realized life isn't about playing the same video game over and over. I guess that makes me a slight exception.