Changelog
What changed on the servers, the config and the site. Anything that affects scoring is called out.
2026-11-09 01:31 UTC
No more finales
Ranked matches now end before the finale. When the campaign reaches its last map, the match is over and the scores from the chapters before it are final.
- One-map campaigns are still played as normal.
2026-11-08 05:55 UTC
Supporter changes
- Supporter checkout now runs on Tebex (cards, PayPal and more). Log in on the store with the same Steam account you use here so your perks reach you.
- Cancel any time with Cancel or manage your subscription on the [Supporter](/premium) page.
- Map votes are equal for everyone now: Supporters no longer get a 3× vote. Supporter perks are cosmetic only.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Season pass unlock alerts
When a match levels you up and unlocks a season pass reward, a 🎉 pop-up now appears on the site right away with the reward and a button to put it on your banner.
- Missed it? It’s waiting the next time you open the site, and Season pass under More shows a red count until you look.
- New rewards are tagged New on the [season pass](/pass) page.
- With desktop alerts on (Play page), you get a notification even if the tab is in the background.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
New look for endorsements
Endorsements got a makeover: 🤝 Good vibes, 📢 Caller and ⏳ Clutch now have their own round emblems.
- Next to names: your most received endorsement shows as its emblem (hover it to see which).
- After a match: pick who to endorse by clicking the emblem next to their name, split into your team and the other team.
- Leaderboard → Endorsements: the top 3 for each kind, plus the full table.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Tongue cuts replace deadstops
ZoneMod turns off Hunter deadstops, so the deadstop stat was always zero. It’s gone from the ladder, and tongue cuts (cutting a Smoker’s tongue with your melee) take its place: there’s a ✂️ Most tongue cuts season medal, a ✂️ Tongue cutter match award, a tongue-cut challenge, and tongue cuts on your profile and match recaps. Deadstop medals and awards you already won stay on your profile.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Five new banner backgrounds
Five new animated backgrounds, free for everyone on [Your banner](/me/banner): 🌲 Deadwood, 🏔️ Summit, 🌴 Jungle, 🏜️ Pyramids and ❄️ Blizzard.
Banner titles are also capitalised now (Hunter Main, Clutch Reviver…). Your saved title carries over.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Ask the Help page a question
The search on [Help & FAQ](/help) now understands whole questions. Type something like “what happens if my internet dies mid game?” and the best answer opens right at the top, with related questions under it. `/help` in Discord uses the same search.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
The Hall of Fame
Every season now ends up in the [Hall of Fame](/hall-of-fame), kept forever: the season champion and top 10, the season’s gold medal winners, and a Best at award for every special infected (Hunter, Smoker, Jockey, Charger, Spitter, Boomer, Tank) and survivor job (skeeter, clearer, medic, tank buster, SI slayer).
Best at awards go to the best average per match, so it’s about how well you play, not how much. You need 10 ranked matches in the season to qualify. Winners get a permanent badge for their banner and profile. The page also shows who would win if the season ended today.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Stat cards and the Inactive list
Stat cards. Paste a profile or match link in Discord, Steam chat or anywhere else and it now shows a big card: your rank, rating, ladder position and record, or the final score, both teams and the MVP. It uses your banner background and title, and updates as you play.
Inactive list. If you go 21 days without a ranked match you move to the Inactive list at the bottom of the [ladder](/leaderboard) until you play again. Your rank and history stay, and one ranked match puts you straight back. The bot DMs you a few days before so it never catches you off guard (you can turn that reminder off from the DM).
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
We now have a [Terms of Service](/terms), [Privacy Policy](/privacy), [Refund Policy](/refunds) and [Copyright](/dmca) page, linked at the bottom of every page.
Next time you play you will be asked to tick one more box confirming you are 13 or older and agree to the Terms. It only takes a second.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Season pass: two new badges
The Ember and Biohazard backgrounds are retired. On the [season pass](/pass), level 10 now gives the 🚪 Safe room regular badge and level 20 the 🧟 Horde survivor badge. If you were using one of those backgrounds, your banner switched to Blood.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Banner refresh
New moving backgrounds: Aurora is now real blue northern lights over a treeline, Midnight is a full moon with clouds drifting past, and Flare is a pink and blue sunset over a palm beach.
Banner titles now come from a list of L4D2 titles (Hunter main, Clutch reviver, Shot caller and more). If you had a custom title, pick a new one on [Your banner](/me/banner).
Retired: Steel, Smoke, Ash and Last stand. If you were using one, your banner switched to Blood.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Security update
Party and team invite links now ask first: opening one shows a Join button instead of putting you straight in, so a link hidden somewhere else can’t drop you into a stranger’s party.
Safer Steam sign-in: each sign-in only works once and only from the browser that started it.
Locked-down pages: the site only runs its own scripts and can’t be shown inside other websites, and links people type into reports and appeals only open real web pages.
Nothing for you to do. Staff: please turn on 2-factor sign-in on your Steam and Discord accounts.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
New medal art, styled names on banners, background votes
Medals got real artwork: gold, silver and bronze medals with an icon for each category, on banners, profiles and the [medal race](/medals).
Supporter name styles (colour, gradient and font) now show on your banner too, including in the matchup panel.
Vote for new backgrounds: on [Your banner](/me/banner), 👍 the background ideas Supporters have sent in. Staff make the most wanted first.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Challenges, stat trends, fresher map rotation and invites
Daily and weekly challenges: 3 new ones every day and every week (the same for everyone), like “Skeet 3 hunters” or “Deal 6,000 damage as infected”. They count automatically from the matches you finish and give bonus [season pass](/pass) XP: +150 for a daily, +400 for a weekly. See them on the Play page.
Stat trends: every profile has a 📈 Stat trends page: your rating and win rate over time, your key stats per match, and how you compare with everyone else in your rank.
Fresher rotation: campaigns that rarely get played now show up on the ballot more often, tagged 🆕 rarely played. [Map stats](/map-stats#rotation) shows how often each campaign is offered, voted, banned and played.
[Invite friends](/invite): share your link. When a friend joins through it and finishes placements, you both get a badge, and 3 friends unlocks the Squad leader avatar frame.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Season pass, coaching, shareable moments and team pages
[Season pass](/pass): every match you finish earns XP (+100, +50 for a win, +50 for MVP, +100 for your first win of the day). 25 levels unlock avatar frames, banner badges and four new backgrounds. Supporters get a second track, including every level they’ve already reached.
[Coaching](/coaching): ask a mentor to coach your next match. They spectate it, then pin notes to moments in your replay that only you can see.
Share this moment: a button in the replay viewer makes a short link that opens the replay at that exact moment, following the same player, with a proper preview in Discord.
Scrim teams: team pages now show recent form, streaks, head-to-head records and a record per campaign, and your team can pick a banner and motto.
Field report: the Monday recap now ends with the season so far: top of the ladder, the medal race leaders and season pass levels.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Match alerts, your ping and a faster site
Never miss a ready check: turn on desktop alerts on the Play page. When your match is found you get a sound and a notification even in another tab; the sound repeats until you press Ready. You also get one when the server is ready to connect. Test checks it works, and you can mute the sound.
Your ping: the Play page shows your ping to each server region before you queue (your real in-game ping once you’ve played there).
One minute left to ready up? The bot DMs you on Discord, with the connect link if you’re not on the server yet.
Leave rate: profiles now show how many matches you finished, left early or went AFK in over the last 60 days.
Faster pages: animated banners only play while they’re on screen. On phones they show a still with ▶ until you tap. Files are cached, so pages load faster the second time.
Supporters can request new banner backgrounds from [Your banner](/me/banner). Hover a background there to see it move.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Banners, season medals and the matchup panel
Season medals: at the end of every season the top 3 in each category (most skeets, highest SI damage, most MVPs, most wins, top of the ladder and more) get a gold, silver or bronze medal for good. Follow the race on [Season medals](/medals).
Your banner: pick a background, a short title and up to 3 medals and badges to show off on [Your banner](/me/banner). Some backgrounds unlock with medals, a top-3 finish, 100 ranked matches or Supporter.
Matchup panel: once the teams are picked, everyone sees both teams’ banners side by side, with each team’s average rating and the chance to win.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Ready-up timer in game
No more waiting on someone who won’t ready up. Each chapter now has a time limit to ready up: 4:00, 3:00, 2:30, 2:30 for chapters 1–4 (the last one repeats). The clock runs from the start of each ready-up whether you’re on the server yet or not, and a countdown shows on screen while you’re not ready.
F1 readies you up and F2 takes it back, same as `!ready` and `!unready`.
Run out of time and the match is cancelled for everyone (no ratings change) and you’re banned. More in [Help](/help#ready-timer).
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Open the demo at the exact moment
Want to clip a play or show staff what happened? Pause the replay on the match page and press 🎬 Open in the demo. You get the demo download and the three console lines that open the real game demo 5 seconds before that moment.
Reports filed with Report this moment show the same steps, so staff can check it in the real game. More in [Help](/help#demo-moment).
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Rematches, Play of the Week and more
Queue: the queue now shows an estimated wait for this time of day, and the home page has a Busy hours chart in your local time. Tick Auto re-queue to go straight back in after a ranked match.
Rematch: after a match, everyone gets 3 minutes to press Rematch. If all 8 accept, you go straight to a new ready check with the same players.
Your profile: a rating history graph, how your stats compare with the ladder (percentiles), head-to-head records against anyone (“You vs X”) and a shareable season wrap card.
Community: vote for the [Play of the Week](/potw) every Monday, and ask for feedback on any moment of your replays on the [Review board](/reviews). Mentors get pinged.
Streamers: an OBS stream overlay with your rank and the live score (link on your profile).
Fair play: rate your teammates’ comms after a match, an automatic slur filter on in-game chat, and a check that places obvious smurfs early.
Sharing: links to profiles, matches and season wraps now show a rich preview in Discord.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Help & FAQ
Every question in one place: the new [Help & FAQ](/help) page answers 206 questions, from getting verified to pauses, parties, ratings, bans and Supporter. Each one is numbered, so you can point someone to “help #54”.
Search it: type on the page, or in Discord type `/help` and start typing. Only you see the answer.
#help in Discord: the full index, one post per section, kept up to date by the bot.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Awards, team ladder and more
Match awards: every match now hands out ⭐ MVP and stat awards like 🎯 Skeet machine, 🛡️ Tank buster and 🐂 Death charger. They show on the match page, the #post-game card and your profile.
Scrim team ladder: scrims still don't touch your rating, but your team now gets a record on the [team ladder](/scrims#ladder), with its own page.
Ranks are now shares of the ladder: Grandmaster is the top 3% of active players, Master the top 13%, Expert the top 35%, Intermediate the top 70%. The cut-offs are re-cut every day, so ranks keep their meaning as everyone improves.
Season badges: your final rank each season stays on your profile (like S1 Master). Master and up also get a small emblem next to their name.
Discord: `/party` and `/scrim` now work in Discord, and 🔔 Queue alerts pings you in #lfg when the queue is almost full.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Placements now count chapters
25 chapters to get a rank (about 6 matches), instead of 3 matches. Campaigns run 2 to 5 chapters, and your rating updates every chapter, so this measures how much you have actually played. Your first rank lands much closer to where you will settle.
Progress bar: the home page, your profile and `/profile` in Discord show how many chapters you have left.
Provisional rating: during placements you can see your own rating (only you). Everyone else sees Unranked until you are placed.
Already ranked? Nothing changes for you: everyone placed under the old rule keeps their rank.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
Recaps, appeals, map stats and more
Match recaps: a DM after every match with your stats, rating change, awards and a link to your best moment in the replay. `/recaps on:false` turns them off.
Ban a campaign: during the vote, press 🚫 on a campaign you hate. Three bans and it is off the ballot.
Reliability: your profile now shows how often you finish what you start. Leaving, no-shows and missed ready checks lower it; under 75% means longer queue timeouts.
Best teammates on your profile, a 🌱 New tag for players in placements, and mentors (🎓) you can ask for help. Become one from your profile or with `/mentor on:true`.
[Map stats](/map-stats): how every campaign plays on our config. [Appeals](/appeals) are on the website now, with status and a DM when decided. [Status](/status) shows the servers and any problems, and the server fund shows how this month's costs are going.
2026-11-08 03:49 UTC
New rating system
Survivor and infected skill: you now have both. Your rating combines them, and teams are balanced on it. Each map rates both halves against what survivors usually score on that map, so a strong infected half counts even when the map is close. The Ladder and your profile show both.
Margins: a blowout moves ratings more than a near-tie.
How you played: your stats on each side are compared with the other players and with what your rating predicts, worth up to about ±12 a match. It shows as ▲/▼ next to your rating change on the match page.
Inactivity: after 21 days without a match your rating slowly drifts down a few points a week, and comes back quickly when you play.
Seasons: each season’s final rating, rank and record are saved on your profile. A new season pulls everyone a quarter of the way toward the average. The ladder’s Season tab counts from the start of the season.
Your current rating carries over: both of your skills start where your rating is now.
2026-11-08 03:48 UTC
What’s new in Rebirth
Three ways to play, side by side on the home page:
- Solo: lock in on your own. Teams are balanced by rating.
- With friends: create a party and send the code to up to 2 friends. You’re always on the same team, and it’s ranked.
- Scrims: your own team of 4 against another team of 4. Unranked.
Getting in: sign in with Steam and you go straight on to linking Discord. Then get verified once by joining any of our servers for a few seconds. Game in English: you’re in. Otherwise a staff member has a quick chat with you first. Connections from some regions and VPNs are checked by staff too.
Pauses: each team gets 2 called pauses per match. Disconnects pause the game by themselves, up to 3 times per player, with 5 minutes of reconnect time for the whole match.
One account per person: accounts that share a browser or a Steam library (Family Sharing) are flagged to staff.
Also new: a new look, the survivor-style rating bar on your player card, Supporter perks (3× map vote, custom name colour and font), and the Live page is gone (watch on SourceTV or the replay viewer instead).