Just wanted to fill the time with other things. For me, I use the game to transition into different parts of the day, like in the middle between reading and then play a bitta TF2/Quake then a bit of skating, but this can be a huge waste of time. It's a bout being productive.

Also I didn't really like the game for years straight because I didn't really understand what I was supposed to get out of it, but now that I understand what I like about it and what I dislike about it, its a lot more bearable to play

my mouse and headphones broke on the same day and i just said fuck it

I take a several month break pretty much every time I'm not on a team, as the grind really isn't fun for me anymore when I don't know for sure that it will have an immediate impact

I'm generally confident in my ability to de-rust in in time for the next season, but doing so probably decreases my chance of getting on a team in the first place and it is definitely partially my own fault, I admit that

I've taken 2 breaks so far. First one was cause my pc died and decided I'd focus on uni which lasted about 4 months.
Second one was again due to me wanting to focus on Uni and it lasted about half a year.

no team = no tf2 idk, at least competitively

i havent really played for a long time, because of work mainly. I did play like 3 weeks of S2 RGL with one of my favorite people DonDoritio, but havent played on a team since then. Thinking about playing again but i dont know...

work fucked me and i have a lot of cool ideas for huds to work on instead :)

ElenaThread

noticed the game was taking more of my time then my creative outlets like music and i didn't think it was healthy.

took a break in 2016 cause my pc sucked and highlander was soul crushing

I'll always take a break from a game when I stop finding it enjoyable. I've taken several year-long breaks from some of my most games and I always come back having way more fun. In a sense, I just wait until I feel motivated or inspired to play the game again rather than forcing myself to play it through a period of frustration. If I'm not enjoying playing whatever game it is, I'll just stop and do something else. I'll usually always pick the game back up at a later date though. There are some games that I started playing nearly 20 years ago, but I certainly haven't played them constantly across that time. The longest break I took was maybe 4-5 years, and then I'd come back and play for a solid few months to a full year, then take another break, etc. I think that's why I still enjoy playing them; I never got burnt out because I stopped just before losing complete interest.

Competitive team games are not friendly to West Coast players. I would be spending 4-5 days a week from 6:30 PM to 10/11 PM playing video games instead of being out and enjoying my life from like 17 - 21. I realized that I would much rather be enjoying life and not be locked into playing video games on a set schedule and play them whenever I felt like

not having fun -> stop playing til have fun again

when i was 16 i was getting groomed by a 24yo woman who happened to be one of the biggest eu streamers and an influential community figure at the time and when she cut me off i tried to kill myself, alienating a lot of people around me. after that, i felt like i couldnt keep on playing as i did before, so i downloaded lmaobox and cheated on stream so the admins had to ban me, forcing me to quit. i thought id never play tf2 again but i came back a year and a half later and honestly been having a good time, with its own ups and downs. at least i never got groomed again lol. glad to see that things improved since then on that front and people dont get off scot free like she did, but from what i can see we still have a very long way to go

I hyper focused on programming a Source Engine Nav Mesh editor, and also online school.

needed gf

The game stopped being fun a long time ago
The grind stopped being fun a long time ago
But it finally hit a point where the lack of enjoyment was outweighing the enjoyment of the people around me. I've come back a few times solely for the people despite me not really enjoying playing.

it's hard to improve at two competitive games at the same time - motivation always declines in one when i go hard in the other

blame unrelated life problem on tf2 -> quit tf2 -> problem is not fixed by quitting tf2 -> figure out how to fix problem -> play tf2 again -> new problem appears -> repeat cycle forever

tho at this point im pretty sure ive broken the cycle by only playing like two nights a week, and mostly just to hang out with teammates

stagnated in growth as a player, my friend teams replaced me as medic, and didn't have motivation to do any invite production or commentating work in seasons, along with work, a csgo stint, living at a summer camp I was working in rhode island and having 300 ping there, and burnout from running one of the largest at the time pug groups in the past. joined a team on a whim this season and stuck around because my teammates are amazing tho

only fun to play when you are on a team with the right mindset

i want more time to do other things

never

i'm addicted obsessed and here every night

get 6

going from work to playing 2.5 hours of tf2 is a lot rougher than going from class to playing 2.5 hours of tf2

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Majority of times so far I've taken a break it has been due to the team I've played on for a longer while has died and I don't have the energy to build something new or feel like playing.

I didn't have time to play outside of scrims, and I was somewhat bored of it, don't have that much more free time but tf2pickup made me come back and play some tf2.
last time I played a season of etf2l was around 3-4 years ago.

Stopped having fun altogether to the point that the thought of having a scrim stressed me out, minor inconveniences in a game were enough to tilt me and that wasn't good, uni schedule got exceedingly tight so I don't really have the free time for the moment and I wanted to get back on my other hobbies that I kept postponing.