[tomooot]

Not really feasible though: even now where players don't even need to buy the game, the server owner has to pay hundreds of $ a month for advertising/promoted ranking on serverlists just to get a decent population.

The VIP system somewhat works for this anyway, regulars who hang around long enough to become familiar to admins, as well as everyone playing through steam, get a couple extra seconds grace in anti-camp areas, reload their guns in 250ms instead of 1800ms, and get green chat text and a "VIP" tag.

Plus, some of our regulars have played the game since release and are so good it's suspicious sometimes. Several regularly have cheating accusations leveled at them cause they're so good. The server automatically records a demo every game and gives admins ESP in spectate mode, so it's simple to spot cheaters, and easy to prove innocence in the case of a false ban.