April 1st 2020 by @switz

Due to coronavirus and the widespread social distancing, PopFlash has seen an unprecedented level of usage these past two weeks. Nearly four to five times (4-5x) our normal levels, and growing. I'm talking 5,000 matches x 30,000 players every day on the way to costing more than $8,000/month in server fees.

For the last five years, PopFlash has been entirely free. I have never put up ads nor have I ever sold your data. I paid every dime out of my own pocket. While I have accepted donations, they've covered less than 6% of the total costs. And PopFlash is a team of one person. I'm not complaining; I did this because I enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, it's reached a point where I literally can not sustain nor afford to run PopFlash for free anymore. The costs are just too high.

I was faced with either shutting PopFlash down or figuring out an alternative. So here's my alternative:

Starting today, I'm introducing a paid 'PopFlash Supporter' role. Only those with this role will be able to host scrims. The other nine (9) players in the scrim can play for free.

For 5 bills, you get a dynamic 5v5 server that handles all the headaches of managing it yourself, including match setup, stats tracking, and demo managing. All for nearly half the price of a monthly CS:GO server. It also comes with 30 extended statistics for every match, a sexy cactus, and more absolutely necessary features.

I will be around on our discord to answer questions. If you're anxious and upset by this, let me know and let's find a solution together. This is not set in stone. If you are able to afford this modest fee, please consider supporting us. I have a lot of really cool projects I'd like to build out over the next few months.

If you've donated in the past, send me an email at [email protected] with your paypal confirmation and your PopFlash URL and I'll make sure you get the equivalent time added to your account.

Thanks for understanding and continuing to be a friendly community member!

My absolute best,

-switz

P.S. I've also added a new server location in Barcelona, Spain as well as added the two new maps (de_anubis and de_chlorine) to the map pool. I hope you enjoy these additions.