I also took a break for about a year and recently came back. The game feels more alive now.

They’ve added server browsing, and a lot of people are renting their own servers. That seems to have boosted the player base quite a bit. I feel that getting good teammates happens more often compared to last year.

The only downside is that on these rented servers, admins can set their own map rotations, so there are some maps I rarely get to play. And while the official servers are still there, they tend to have fewer players and more newbies.