Usually, when I join a server, the loading bar slowly loads up, and when it reaches the end, it waits for a maximum of 3 seconds and I'm sent to the grey welcome screen.
However, recently, whenever I try to play Valve's competitive, the loading bar fills up normally, but then when it reaches the end, I have to wait around minutes just to be brought to the grey loading screen.
And THEN the screen is still frozen, and I am still unable to click the "CONTINUE" button for whatever reason. Eventually it shows that I timed out, and asks me if I want to rejoin or abandon for a penalty. Of course, rejoining only makes the issue happen again, and eventually I give up, abandon, and receive my penalty.
I used to play Valve's competitive fine, but now it just doesn't work for some reason.
Also, I usually use dxlevel 81, and I have to switch to dxlevel 90 in order to even join a competitive match. I've been doing that the entire time, but only now has this issue ever occured.
Like I said, it used to be fine, but now it doesn't work.
(I haven't installed any new mods or HUDs recently, in fact I don't even use any HUDs.)
Please help me! I've already gotten demoted to level 1 because of this problem!! (all that hard work...)
Note: Now, using -dxlevel 90 in my launch options doesn't work for some reason, and I have to use mat_dxlevel 90 in the console to switch to dxlevel 90 (when I do that, the console prints "bad convar found in dxsupport - mat_tonemapping_occlusion_use_stencil", but the dxlevel is switched regardless). I don't have mat_dxlevel in my autoexec.cfg or config.cfg either.