Disappearance of Item 100,000

The **Disappearance of Item 100,000** refers to the disappearance of the 100,000th item used on TF2Tags. With the site being up for over four years at that point, Item 100,000 was to be a significant milestone for the site's longevity. Many taggers had plans for this item, but ultimately all were left shocked when the item was quietly seized and deleted by a tagger unknown to general tagging public.

## The Disappearance

On the morning of November 4th, 2015, Tag 99877 was posted, which was a set consisting of 28 items. This meant that TF2Tags was now less than 100 items away from reaching its 100,000 item milestone. Shortly after posting this set, the set's author, CP, realized how close the milestone was and advocated a community-enforced ban on Item Sets for the following day or two, to ensure the 100,000th item was a singular submission and not part of a larger set. Danjin, Master of Skelenomics commented that he was just about to start making one, but decided to relent and go along with the idea. TGRobert mentioned that his "eyes were burning with mischief" and did not say if he would adhere to this. CP then wrote an addendum that spamming submissions should also be banned.

Immediately following this, Makin' Bacon (who likely did not see CP's tag) posted a set of 29 items showcasing how there were just too many top hats in TF2. CP himself commented on this and did not seem to take issue. However, soon after CP would post another tag noting that they were all less than 90 tags away, and told everyone to keep watch. Makin' commented on this tag asking if he could please be the one who made the coveted 100,000th tag.

What followed after this cannot necessarily be placed in concrete order, so it will be described in the order that is most likely. A massive item set consisting of 100 items was soon posted after CP's second tag, and then immediately deleted (CP's second tag was 99912, and the tag immediately following it on the archive, a TF2NNN entry reporting on the item's disappearance, is 100012). The set containing Item 100,000 was made and deleted somewhere between CP's second tag (made at 12:49 am) and the TF2NNN set made right after its deletion (made at 1:14 am). Since TF2NNN sets likely take a few minutes to make, this means that the set containing Item 100,000 was posted during a roughly 22-minute span of site inactivity. It is unknown if this set was being created prior or during CP's announcing that the milestone was coming, or after.

## The Search for the Culprit

As previously stated, following the deletion of this set, Expand made an entry of the TF2Tags Nightly News Network, where he made a breaking report about the sudden disappearance of this major site milestone, citing possible suspects including: the Illuminachos (a recurring meme from Mr. Copycat), Zeke the Plumber, or (more than likely according to Expand) the Order of the Magic Plumbs. In the comments, Makin' Bacon pointed to a different suspect: Scout. TGR quickly came in and agreed, with Makin' justifying the accusation by stating "scout's are assholes, definately scout". CP's second tag then got comments from TGR and Legownz reflecting on how it was ruined, potentially by Scout. Expand then commented saying that Scout was now a confirmed member of the Order of the Magic Plumbs. After some comments from Marmot, Player 1 + Player 2, and CP, Legownz came in and decided that if Scout was the culprit, then every Scout main on the site must be investigated, which included Digi, Blast, Ulysses, and Legownz himself. Blast then fervently commented that he had nothing to do with it.

What is extremely odd, however, is Expand's behavior following this set. In the keywords of their (it is unknown which of the three Expands was using the account at the time) TF2NNN entry, there was a long string of binary code, which when put into a binary to text translator reads: "I know who did it but it's a secret I'll take to the grave lol" This most likely means that Expand saw the set containing Item 100,000 before it was deleted, and thus the subsequent user. Regardless, this meant that Expand was the only tagger who knew the true identity of the person who ruined the milestone, and had no plans to share who the person was (perhaps for news ratings). Blast saw this string of binary and translated it, and in a comment following his denial of having any involvement demanded Expand explain how they knew what happened. Oddly, at some point after making the TF2NNN entry, Expand went to CP's second post and commented "YOU KNEW".

Some time later, TheOnlyGuyEver made a tag of the Soldier's Requiem titled "The 100,000th Post". Danjin commented that it was "Almost as bad as post 80085 that isn't boobs." At 4:16 am, three hours after the disappearance, Dr. Dos himself returned to the site for the first time since the Banning of Sensible Haircut to address the situation. He made a tag of the Schadenfreude named/described "100,000 / Damn. I got dunked on." In the comments of this tag, Dos revealed some information. First, he states that he knows who did it and called them brilliant for making such a large set to guarantee 100,000. He gave the culprit kudos, but did not name them. Second, the text dump of the submission was cut off for being too long, and thus could only attempt to follow the pattern of items in the set. Dos stated that 100,000th item was most likely a Claws and Infect named "82". Third, Dos revealed that he actually had his own little plan for Item 100,000 in which he would program the site to make a tag of the Sniper Rifle simply named "Sniped" whenever Item 100,000 was up for grabs, but decided not to go through with it because he wanted to see what it actually was. Lo and behold, he found it quite humorous. The reaction to this information had little to do with the information Dos gave, as people were mostly surprised that Dos had shown up at all, given his radio silence for almost two months.

Following this, Squidward Testicles took the opportunity to seize a funny item number. He made two tags, one after the other, stating that if he couldn't have Item 100,000, he would take Item 100,069 (nice) instead, which Expand, Player 1 + Player 2, and Blast praised him for. Later, Expand made another entry into of the TF2Tags Nightly News Network, covering topics both related and unrelated to the current on-site situation. For what is pertinent to this page, Expand commented on the return of Dos as well as providing the context to the "YOU KNEW" comment left on CP's second tag. Expand claimed that CP somehow alluded to Dos's return in his first tag, which he linked to in the set. CP commented on this set, refuting the claim: "I knew what now? How was I predicting Dos' return? I was just looking out for post #100k".

Afterwards, Relk would make a set, and as per usual decided to wait out the firestorm in silence, though he did comment that, had he gotten Item 100,000, he would have made it a Saxxy. A minor tagger made a tag stating that there was still hope for future milestones like Item 111,111 and Item 123,456 (111,111 would later be claimed by Alpha Cranberry, while 123,456 would be part of TGRobert's "Thanks, and have fun." set). In the comments of these posts TGR was warning that Scout was still out there and may later return. Ulysses then made a post comparing Dos to a fart.

Blast would then make a set recapping the events of the previous hours, noting that people were withholding secrets and Blast wanted to know what the hell was going on. The secrets being withheld was naturally referring to Expand, who commented that "this is why the steam group exists", to which Blast refuted as Expand dodging the question. TGR once again reiterated it was Scout. Relk questioned what Blast meant by secrets, to which he pointed Relk in the direction of the binary string in the keywords of the first TF2NNN set on the subject. TheOnlyGuyEver translated the binary and put it the message into the comment section, calling Expand a "secrety moodafooka". Mr. Copycat, the resident conspiracy theorist, insisted it was the Illuminachos in the following comment and in an item set. From here, things petered out and the subject was eventually dropped, but not forgotten.

## Gallery

CP proposes a ban on item sets leading up to Item 100,000.CP notes how close to Item 100,000 the site was, and advised everyone keep watch.Expand reports the disappearance of Item 100,000.TheOnlyGuyEver presses F to pay respects.Dr. Dos reveals some.Marmot celebrates Dos's return.Squidward Testicles laments the loss of Item 100,000......before taking the opportunity to secure a lesser milestone.Expand makes another news entry, accusing CP of knowing what was going to happen.Relk wakes up and goes back to sleep.A minor tagger notes future milestones.Ulysses compares Dr. Dos to a fart.Blast demands answers.Mr. Copycat blames the Illuminachos.
## Trivia

* Note that the only reason this could have happened this way was due to the original TF2Tags counting each individual item as its own submission, regardless of it being alone or in a set. This made it very easy for someone, like the unknown culprit here, to snatch up milestones.
* This would only be the first instance of a major site milestone disappearing. The same would happen with Item 200,000 and Item 10,000 on Tags.tf.
* On Item 111,111, TGR predicted that Scout would return to steal Item 200,000. In a way, he was correct.
* Though he did not appear to partake in the event at all, Twelve Hour Respawn allegedly knew the identity of the tagger responsible for stealing Item 100,000.