[Announcement] (Mostly) Shutting Down GFL

[annoying furry 6,335 / 64,323]

Hello. I’ve made the difficult decision to begin the process of winding down (most of) GFL. This has been caused by a variety of circumstances, including:

 

• A decline in popularity of our servers. Our main divisions have been slowly diminishing since GFL’s earlier days, but up until recently this wasn’t as big of a deal as CS:GO could more than make up for it. Unfortunately, with Valve releasing CS2 and hurting the CS:GO division, our revenue dropped substantially.
• Failure to pivot. Despite our revenue falling substantially, our expenses didn’t. In fact, some providers even increased prices citing inflation. While we have been aware that there was a problem for some time, due to a combination of optimism regarding CS2’s ability to pick up where CS:GO left off and a failure to implement measures to reduce our expenses quickly enough, our bank account’s balance has deteriorated over the last few months. While we did indeed take some cost cutting measures earlier this year, they did not end up being sufficient. More substantial changes were needed and key individuals capable of planning and implementing them were unavailable due to outside obligations.
• Inability to find a new owner. I’ve had the idea of passing on ownership of the community and departing floating around in my head for some time as I have had neither the time nor motivation to work on GFL. I asked a few individuals who I trust whether they’d be willing to take on the community. Due to the substantial amount of work involved in bringing GFL back to being sustainable (among other factors), none of the individuals I spoke with were willing to take the community in its entirety due to risk that entails. As I really do not want to be doing this any longer, I am left with the option of either partially or entirely shutting down the community.

 

In line with this, the majority of GFL’s servers and services will stop operating on or before July 21. I’m sorry I cannot offer a more specific timeline, but I will try to keep things operational until cancellation dates make doing so no longer feasible. That said, some servers will continue to operate under new ownership.

 

CS2 Zombie Escape

Despite the overall decline of the community, Zombie Escape has remained strong thanks to the continued efforts of @Vauff, @Snowy, the server’s staff team, and the community. I think it’d be unfortunate for ZE to go down with the ship, so I’ve spoken with Vauff and will be handing off ownership of CS2 Zombie Escape server, the gflclan.com web domain, and most of the community’s remaining funds to Vauff (the rest of the money will be used to settle any obligations I have incurred on GFL’s behalf, such as outstanding invoices from service providers). This change will be happening over the next week or two and there may be some downtime associated with moving things over. Vauff will be releasing his own announcement with further details.

 

CS:GO Surf and Surf Private Servers

While the public CS:GO Surf servers have been hurt substantially by CS2, @Infra is interested in potentially spinning the subdivision off into its own entity, so GFL Surf will continue to operate in some form and private server services will continue. I will give Infra some money that would have otherwise been paid out to private server clients as a refund for early termination of the service. I will also give Infra ownership of the Surf Discord.

 

Physion Unturned

A while ago GFL purchased another community, Physion. Since purchasing it, @Salad has acted as the community manager of Physion. Salad is interested in continuing to run Physion independently. To facilitate this, I will be giving Salad the physion.gg domain name and the Physion Discord.

 

Other Divisions

Various staff members have expressed that they would be interested in continuing to run their servers at their own expense. I am happy to facilitate this by giving them access to any server files they may need (excluding anything with restrictive licenses, e.g. GMODStore addons). I am also willing to consider on a case by case basis transferring ownership of divisional Discords to interested staff members. Any staff members interested may contact me on Discord to discuss.

 

Acknowledgement

Throughout GFL’s history, it’s been somewhat of a tradition to tag a bunch of members who had a significant impact on your time in the community in resignation / departure threads. While I was initially tempted to do the same in this post, the reality is that there are simply too many people who played in a role in building GFL and I don’t want to run the risk of leaving anybody out (that said, if you have anybody you feel had a positive influence on your time in the community, give them a shout out in the replies!). So instead I’d like to thank all of the staff and community members who played a role in making GFL special to myself and so many others. I’d also like to thank Christian (Roy). Despite the admittedly rough break-up, literally none of this would’ve been possible without him and I wish him the best.

 

[Trigger 158 / 5,022]

Had some good times in GFL, sad to see it go.

[Sir_Ross 59 / 3,342]

[Dini 248 / 7,206]

Valve hurt us bad, nothing else could have been done sadly. It was good while it lasted GFL 

 

[Sir_Ross 59 / 3,342]

How is the remaining donation money going to be divided?

Edited 15 hours ago by Sir_Ross

[ItzTropicalx 54 / 3,324]

Damn, been here since mid-2020 and have had some incredibly great times on the servers and with the staff. I want to thank everyone who was able to make this community possible, and especially for the support given towards my father and I when we had our rough times. 💗

Sad to see it go, but thanks for all you've done Aurora, and the rest of the staff here. I'll still be in surf 'till the bitter end. Here's hoping to a great future of the remaining GFL servers and CS2.

And thanks, @annoying furry, for my eternal nickname you gave me. (Troppy)  💗 💗 💗

🎮 GAMES FOR LIFE 🎮

Edited 14 hours ago by ItzTropicalx
lel

[annoying furry 6,335 / 64,323]

Just now, Sir_Ross said:

How is existing donation money going to be divided?

 

Vauff gets all of it less any outstanding invoices from services providers and the amount I am giving Infra to take on the existing private server subscriptions (I need to calculate the exact amount based on the would-be pro-rated refunds, but it will probably be like $300 - $400 to Infra).

[Baconator 174 / 5,367]

I was literally JUST talking with a friend how difficult it was to surf because of the CS2 change....

Sad to see GFL winding down but all good things must come to an end, that's reality.

 

Remember the memories, that's all you will have come old age.

[Sir_Ross 59 / 3,342]

3 minutes ago, annoying furry said:

 

Vauff gets all of it less any outstanding invoices from services providers and the amount I am giving Infra to take on the existing private server subscriptions (I need to calculate the exact amount based on the would-be pro-rated refunds, but it will probably be like $300 - $400 to Infra).

I donated >$200 specifically for the CS:S ZE server, I hope the allocation of the remaining funds will be based on what servers the donations were made for.

Also, how much to buy the site? Not kidding. I might buy it.

Edited 15 hours ago by Sir_Ross

[ballsmigue 1 / 2,130]

Damn. End of an era.

 

I've always popped back into the occasional server throughout the years but it's been a long 12+ years.

 

I'm still keeping my custom steam profile pic the same as always.

[TheJitFace 704 / 18,211]

Sad to see GFL go, but had some good times here. 

 

Purge best server of all time

 

@Vauff don't kill the forums

Edited 15 hours ago by TheJitFace

[WarpedCakez 219 / 5,706]

10 minutes ago, Sir_Ross said:

This mfer stole my meme

[Pyrono 21 / 2,885]

So does that mean that the last time before we shut down we gonna go back to our roots? Autism Hour?

[Cassie 1,232 / 23,111]

A lot of people were with me throughout this journey, so sorry if I miss anyone! You're all very loved!!!! :3

thanks @Garrbear420 for turning me gay

thanks @Mazenblue for turning me gay

thanks @Aurora for turning me gay

thanks @Kubnair for turning me gay

thanks @Cpt.Haxray for turning me gay

thanks @Liloz01 for turning me gay

thanks @VilhjalmrF for turning me gay

thanks @Aquaticfilly0 for turning me gay

thanks @Winter for turning me gay

thanks @Rollnaway for turning me gay

thanks @Grrreat Leaf for turning me gay

thanks @Lipquip for turning me gay

thanks @DOOMSlayer_ for turning me gay

thanks @Chro for turning me gay

thanks @KaitoKiriyama for turning me gay

thanks @StereoRaedioVA for turning me gay

thanks @Dragoon for turning me gay

thanks @Carthing2 for turning me gay

thanks @John Jeez Man for turning me gay

thanks @Severely_Artistic for turning me gay

thanks @RivalRevival for turning me gay

thanks @saizy for turning me gay

thanks @-_Fx_- for turning me gay

Edited 14 hours ago by Cassie

[AsNKrysis 46 / 2,758]

10 minutes ago, Sir_Ross said:

I donated >$200 specifically for the CS:S ZE server, I hope the allocation of the remaining funds will be based on what servers the donations were made for.

Also, how much to buy the site? Not kidding. I might buy it.

 

You'll have to discuss that with Vauff if he chooses to sell the domain. He'll be receiving ownership of the site, but we at the CS2 ZE staff team are still discussing how to move forward.

[CNe7532294 175 / 4,815]

7 minutes ago, Pyrono said:

So does that mean that the last time before we shut down we gonna go back to our roots? Autism Hour?

Si 

[VilhjalmrF 2,104 / 30,745]

It's been one helluva a ride. Though I haven't been active in GFL as much as I use to be (leaving around late 2020), I'll never forget the people I met here. Plenty of my online closest friends I met was here in GFL TTT and Breach and whom I still hang with out in voice chat playing games.

 

I appreciate what GFL had offered to me. A whacky bunch of goobers that I can call friends.

 

~ Formerly Kite9867 (gay individual)/William (still gay individual)

Edited 14 hours ago by VilhjalmrF

[Eli 711 / 11,631]

Literally just yesterday I was browsing the forums sharing my phone screen to the living room TV showing my friends what I was up too in middle and early high school. 

 

RIP the OG old fourms Gmod days

[TimeForYouToGetAWatch 233 / 6,946]

TTT MC 24/7 On top
 

[lindq005 5 / 3,044]

I had a lot of fun playing with everyone the last 10 years. Sad to see GFL ending.