Speculations have arisen that Valve has silently issued a massive ban wave against bots in its popular shooter, Team Fortress 2. While not confirmed by the company, one notable creator claims the Seattle-based developer culled nearly 20,000 bots in a single night, effectively wiping clean their presence in Casual matches.

A well-known Team Fortress 2 YouTuber shounic posted a video on June 27 claiming “all the bots got banned.” He said that on the evening of June 25, at least 16,000 bots were silently plucked from the game by Valve. The company hasn’t said a word regarding any ban waves or bot targeting, leaving the situation completely ambiguous, which is in line with the developer’s MO. Shounic further added that he explored the Casual game mode, where bots were mostly present, saying he found only a single bot after dozens of matches.