Our community has made the difficult decision to shut down the FoF servers, though not due to a lack of players.
Avalon Community Servers has been a community that cares about its members, always reaching out to all players, and we have offered our infrastructure to players to launch a new game. Our servers have offered quality from the beginning, carefully prepared and specifically configured to offer the best performance to all players, within the technical feasibility and following the recommendations of the developers and official partners (when possible), in addition to committing to fair and transparent moderation based on properly developed and approved criteria and protocols, without bias.
AvalonCS welcomed several players who were very happy with our community and the way we worked, and we made an interesting offer: opening servers for Fistful of Frags, an unconventional and not very popular game. Although the game didn’t have a significant community, we accepted the request to create servers to please our community and other players looking for new experiences. For many years, it has been one of the best servers in terms of performance and quality, something appreciated by many players, including those outside our community.
Judge Uchiha, the community manager and administrator of the Fistful of Frags forums on Steam, was appointed to manage our servers. He was a member of the community until a few weeks ago, when he was banned for sabotage, negligence in server management, and dedicating himself entirely to another community, among other things.
A few weeks ago, our regular players urgently contacted the administrators to inform us that our servers were not appearing in the game’s server list and could only be accessed manually through the game console and by knowing the IP address.
After a thorough review of the issue and several consultations with Steam Support and Valve engineers, we discovered that our servers were running perfectly and communicating with Steam master server without issue, but we had been included in the Fistful of Frags blocked server file, along with the IP addresses of other communities. This file is included in all Half-Life-based games using the Source engine and must always be empty, as the decision to block servers or not is solely the player’s, never the developers’.
This situation arose as a personal revenge by the aforementioned former administrator for having been justifiably expelled from the community. This type of action sets a dangerous precedent and represents irresponsible behavior, resulting in a significant loss of players who rely exclusively on our community and the values it represents, as well as an indirect warning to all players.
However, this is not an isolated case, as other communities have reported on their social media (since comments on the Steam forums are not allowed without being censored by the game team) having experienced this type of situation with their servers. This demonstrates that the FoF team has fallen into a spiral of hatred and witch hunts that has resulted in the loss of the few remaining communities, leaving barely 100 players in this game compared to just over 500 when we started.
We attempted to resolve the issue amicably, but received no response after several weeks. To prevent further escalation of attacks and continue with our strategy, and for the benefit of our community, the administrative team decided to permanently shut down our servers for that game and dedicate them to other games requested by our community that are more respectful and open to players.
UPDATE (15/01/2024): New information about this game confirming what we said.
Several months ago, we issued a severe warning about the danger to communities that continued to operate in the game at their discretion. Although our community never engages in tabloids, sensationalism, or persecuting individuals or communities, we are exceptionally editing this article, not to point fingers, but to warn about the individuals behind a situation that has never occurred in any game.
We have recently discovered that the development team has done something unprecedented: they have publicly made false accusations against a community, using the Announcements system offered from Steam to all game developers. Furthermore, not just once, adding to another topic as can be seen in this backup copy, but they have issued an exclusive statement with the corresponding defamation.
The matter is even more serious when the owner of a community is a friend; hate crimes are fully justified. Here’s an article where a player denounces the administrator’s antisemitism, and all he receives from the official team is a lame justification for not taking action and a mild justification for this owner, who promotes hatred based on religious and ethnic grounds.
This type of action confirms the failure of a very good and fun game idea, serving to satisfy the imperative need for power of mediocre characters who behave like dictators and are only looking for a false way to give meaning to their empty lives, while expelling those who only seek peace, fun, and camaraderie.
The game is currently immersed in an unprecedented war between a community that controls the game in its own way and according to its own rules (most of which are unfair and a sign of latent corruption and favoritism), where you are either with them or against them, and on the other hand, another community that has grown fed up with its rulers for many reasons that we know of. And the other players who don’t give a damn about this matter move on to other games to find a less hostile environment. We warned at the time and unfortunately, it is happening.
UPDATE (27/07/2025): Community Statement on the Removal of Former Staff Member “Judge Uchiha”
We didn’t want to go into this topic in depth since we no longer have any involvement with this game at the time of writing. However, we believe we must convey an important message.
The individual formerly known as Judge Uchiha, who served as the head administrator of our dissapeared Fistful of Frags servers, was expelled from our community due to severe technical and administrative negligence. This included the persistent enabling of cheaters, deliberate sabotage of the community’s banlist, and irresponsible management practices,among others. His actions directly contributed to the collapse of our server network in FoF and the eventual dissolution of our presence within the game.
We were recently informed that the aforementioned individual has been removed from official positions and banned from the game’s Steam forums for using his powers and influence to brutally attack a second community and launch a second witch hunt. We are greatly relieved to hear this long-awaited decision.
However, this will not address the disastrous consequences of a regrettable and prolonged tenure, which has resulted in years of rampant hostility, bias, and disregard for the community at large. Estimated losses of between 80% and 90% of the player base since his rise to power in 2017, as well as the loss of fundamental rights and freedoms on the forums, such as freedom of expression and opinion, harassment, and takedowns of legitimate communities for purely personal reasons and based on questionable claims, among others.
This decision by the developer represents a major step toward redirecting the game’s direction from certain death to a more cooperative and positive era, replacing the aforementioned player with people who are apparently more moderate.
However, our community strongly demands comprehensive structural reforms to ensure that no such abuse of power, corruption, or personal favoritism can ever happen again. These reforms must be permanent, enforceable, and backed by clear, public protocols based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria — never on subjective opinions or internal favoritism.
We propose the following measures:
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Eliminate or reform the Featured Server System
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Eliminate: The current system relies on opaque, potentially biased moderator approval, with no transparency or appeals process, and with requirements that are discriminatory in several aspects.
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Reform: Servers should be listed automatically based on player-specific quantitative factors such as lowest latency and preferred game mode, without any manual intervention.
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Replace all community-linked moderators with independent, impartial moderators
Even with the recent change, the new moderators are tied to specific in-game communities, which risks indirect favoritism. Moderators should have no affiliation with any server, clan, or group and should be tasked solely with moderating the game’s forums, Discord, and social channels. -
Publish all rules, moderation protocols, and internal guidelines
These documents must be public, clear, and easily accessible on all official platforms to prevent arbitrary punishments and ensure players understand expectations. -
Redesign the official website
Centralize all game-related content: downloads, patch notes, guides, tutorials, FAQs, modding resources, and a roadmap. The website should become the reference hub for both new and veteran players. -
Remove or restrict HTML-based MOTDs for ads
The MOTD should be limited to an informative welcome screen. Server owners seeking funds should do so through voluntary donations, not intrusive advertising. -
Create an independent appeals system
All bans and punishments should be subject to review by a neutral panel, separate from the issuing moderators. Appeal results should be documented and archived publicly, with sensitive details redacted. -
Conduct regular moderator performance audits
Every quarter, moderator actions should be reviewed by an independent team to ensure compliance with established protocols. Repeated misuse of power should result in removal. -
Form a Community Advisory Board
This board should include diverse player representatives who meet regularly with developers to address concerns, propose changes, and monitor the health of the community. -
Implement a transparent server reporting and feedback system
Players should be able to report servers for misconduct or technical problems directly to the developers, with public tracking of report statuses and resolutions. -
Establish merit-based recognition programs
Highlight servers, events, and community contributions through player voting rather than moderator selection to prevent favoritism and reward genuine merit.
Although these measures may not cover every necessary reform, they form an essential starting point to rebuild trust, recover the lost player base, and restore the game to its former glory. Without them, this recent change risks being a cosmetic fix that leaves the root problems intact.