This is the cycle of every Team Fortress 2 player ever:

> Download the game. > Enter your first match. > Realize you don't know what you're doing. > Die repeatedly. > Just before you rage, you find the Ghastly Gibus hat. > Since all the pro players have cool-looking hats, you are inspired. > Die repeatedly in different game modes. > Discover that you are getting a lot of kills as Pyro. > Be mentally violated by other players calling you a "f2p gibus pyro". > Get slightly better at the game. > Die repeatedly. > Leave the game. *6 months later.* > Start to discover TF2 videos on YouTube. > Realize that there are more classes than just Pyro and Sniper. > End up wanting to be a pro non-Pyro like all the cool YouTubers. > Return to Team Fortress 2. > Die repeatedly. > Claim that you 'main' Pyro. > Walk at people and light them on fire mindlessly for a few weeks. Or months. > Start getting a good K/D ratio on a different class. > Succumb to peer-pressure and buy hats. > Discover the Steam community market and buy more hats for less. > Feel your skill strangely growing as you get more hats. > More kills. Less deaths. > You begin to discover the passive players of TF2. (Sandvich hoovies, spycrabs, box shpees, etc.) > Develop a kindness and sense of friendship towards your fellow TF2 players. > Start to top-score more often. > You begin to care about the state of the game. > Realize that Pyros are overpowered and pointless. > Start to hate Pyros. > Start to hate everyone. > Start to hate the TF2 community. > You hate everything and everyone, to the point where you start to kill passive players again. > Ask yourself, "If I hate this game, why do I have ten unusuals and fifteen Australiums? What am I doing?" > Look at your playtime and begin to hate yourself. > You dislike yourself more than the game now. > Contemplate suicide. > Contemplate religion. > Question the game. > Binge-watch STAR_'s 2012-2013 TF2 videos to remind you of a simpler time. > Sit down and think. > Realize what you have become. > Go into a mid-TF2 crisis. > Except it's not mid-TF2 anymore. You have 1000 hours in-game. > What is going on? > WHAT IS TEAM FORTRESS 2? > WHY DOES THE LIGHT LIE TO ME? > Quit TF2 forever. > Come back to it in a week and die to a gibus sniper who taunts after kill. > Kill yourself. Or maybe that was just my experience. Oh well. 10/10 Edit: It's been more than eight years since I posted this review, and I wanted to amend the final point. That is not part of the Team Fortress 2 player's cycle. In truth, the cycle is still going, thanks to the dedication of the community. I will not change my recommendation, because I believe this game will become better again. #SaveTF2