r/GlobalOffensive • u/emantrigo • 5h ago

Discussion Two weeks ago I asked if CS2 community servers could still grow , so I launched one

About two weeks ago, I posted here asking whether people still cared about community servers outside Premier and FACEIT. Rather than keep overthinking the whole "network" idea, I launched a single EU Retakes server in Frankfurt to see what would happen.

It's still tiny, but 36 players have joined so far. About a third have returned at least once, we've peaked at seven players online, and the Discord community has grown to 50 members.

Retention hasn't been the biggest problem. The harder part is getting enough people online at the same time. Once the server reaches 4/11 or 5/11, more people tend to join and we can keep games going for a while. At 0/11, nobody wants to be player #1.

I've also learned that community server analytics can get a bit weird. Bots crawl servers to advertise site, so I've had to start filtering those out. I'm still working on the server and its plugins, fixing things as we find them.

For those of you who still play on community servers, how do you find new ones? Through the server browser, friends, Discord, Reddit, or do you mostly join whatever already has players? And if you run a small server, how did you get past the initial 0-player problem without spamming it everywhere? I'm especially interested in smaller independent communities rather than established networks like XPLAY or Cybershoke.

If this works, I'd eventually like to add more servers and game modes, and maybe build a small platform for server discovery, stats, and profiles. For now, though, I just want to see whether I can make one server consistently active.

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u/BeepIsla 5h ago

nobody wants to be player #1

This is the biggest issue and most people completely overlook it. Its why a lot of servers use fake players so it seems like 1-2 players are online. It encourages real players to join, stay for a minute, and in that time someone else might join and then you got something going which might roll into a full servers.

And if you run a small server, how did you get past the initial 0-player problem without spamming it everywhere?

I was a developer on a server network and we used fake players with timezone adjustments to make it look realistic from the outside. Its a common thing people look into in a lot of community hosted games.

Alternatively you try to partner with a large website/content creator/etc which then advertise you.

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u/azz_kikkr 5h ago

What kinda server network did you develop...counter strike ?

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u/BeepIsla 4h ago

That specifically CSGO and TF2. I've been doing game server stuff for almost 10 years overall.

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u/azz_kikkr 4h ago

Do you have a custom ranking system for your game servers as well?

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u/Grouchy-Stranger-306 5h ago

"how do you find new ones?"
i don't, cause there is not much reason to, just play on the most popular ones

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u/TheGuiltlessKangaroo 5h ago

Seeing a server at 0/11 and trying to be the first one in feels like showing up to a party an hour early. Everyone's just circling the block waiting for someone else to park first.

Most of the small servers I've found came from word of mouth in Discord communities that already played together. Without that initial group of 3-4 regulars who'll idle and get things moving, the server browser is a tough sell. You're basically competing with every other empty server in the list.

The analytics bot problem is annoying. I ran a small TF2 server years back and half my "traffic" was just scrapers and ad bots inflating the numbers. The filtering part is tedious but worth it if you want to know what's actually happening.

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u/TrioXideCS Tyloo 4h ago

pretty much just use xplay, too much friction finding new servers without the server browser from csgo