EFS:Timeline

Part 0: Codi

Trailhead the First

Pro Hackerz

On 2016-03-17, a post appeared on /r/gamedetectives saying that Teragon Group's website had changed. Six hours later, The page was found to be hacked by an entity named Codi.

Four hours later, the site reverted to its usual look.

Baphomet Studio's YouTube channel was updated following the hack and uploaded this video.

The next day this video appeared on the channel, with the description saying it was "sponsored by Codi". The game shown in the video is *Stardew Valley*, and this channel was discovered through this hint.

A Warm Welcome

The video Hi There drew attention as it was the newest one and different to the others. The text said:

Hi there.
My name is Codi.
Do you want to know me?
Let’s see if you're smart enough.
Solve this riddle.
[Mirrored] See you on the other side.

The video itself is flashing images of asterisks.

More videos here and here were added.

The first video is the Star Spangled Banner (American national anthem), and the second one is Twinkle Twinkle.

Over the night multiple videos were put up and down on the Baphomet Studios YoutTube channel, but two new clues stayed here and here.

IT'S STAAAARS YOU FOOLS!

Constellations & Team Fortress 2

The constellation inside the video was discovered on 2016-03-18 to be the Camelopardalis constellation after many camel-related clues were given.

Using all previous hints this blog was discovered by spelling Camelopardalis backwards.

This post and this post were combined into a single image shown here and here.

Using TF2 themed posts and the hint about Tumblr, this Tumblr blog was discovered as an anagram of the images merged together.

This post on Tumblr also lead to this video. A solved version of the image in the Tumblr post can be seen here.

After many hours of suffering and chasing after wrong ciphers, this ask.fm account was found, which led us here.

However, the ARG was put on hiatus - read more here.

Don't Stop Me Now

Roughly eight hours after the ARG went on hiatus, there was a realization that the first letters of the maps, "nserubetclu", was an anagram for /r/turbulences.

On April 5th 2016, 15 days after the cancellation of Teragon 2/Codi, the reddit user /u/TonyWan started posting in the League of Legends and DoTA 2 subreddits. This is interesting because Tony Wan is a character from the first Teragon ARG.

The DoTA 2 post was a link to a Twitch channel called "thehiddenmessage". It showed the DoTA hero select screen with a robotic voice reading out Buddhist transcripts.

The LoL post linked to a website claiming to have secret information on certain teams from popular eSports games.

People's ARG senses were tingling, especially with the link to Teragon. More investigation was done on the website and Twitch stream which led to more discoveries, somewhat confirming an ARG.

Part 0: eSports Gossip

Trailhead II: Esports Gossip

Tony's Return

The Reddit user Tony Wan (a character from the previous Teragon ARG) posted to multiple places such as the League of Legends and Dota subreddits.

The Dota post, posted on 16/4/10, was about a Twitch channel called "thehiddenmessage", while the LoL post, posted 5/4/10, linked to [esportsgossip.club eSports Gossip Club], a website claiming to have secret info on certain teams from popular eSports games.

Around this time, the TeragonGroup website that the original Teragon ARG was based around also went down.

It Begins

On eSportsGossipClub, there was a link for sending a tip, as well as a link to "start.html" abd a twitter page.

The cipher for start.html was rather basic, using an a1z26/"number letters" cipher:

Deciphering the page with this code yielded the message:

"YOUR EFFORTS WILL BE REWARDED TO PROCEED GO TO THE NEXT STEP"

This led to nextstep.html, which at the time simply read:

"Coming soon."

At some point on 16/04/15, the eSports Gossip website changed its repeated "official launch" date from 16/04/10 to 16/04/20.

Around the beginning of the Twitch livestreams, start.html and all other pages on the site except nextstep.html changed to simply read:

You are not yet ready.

Part 1: Malena

Hopeful Transmissions

At around 3:33 pm CST on April 11th, thehiddenmessage started streaming again, this time reading passages from the "Tibetian Book of the Dead." At the end of the stream, a text-to-speech voice could be heard repeating:

This marks the end of tonight's broadcast.
Please click the Follow button, do not forget to clear your mind and meditate.
123 345 567 789 910

At around 12:40 pm CST on April 12th, the stream started again with the title "The Master's Secret Knowledge". At the end of the stream, the following was heard:

To reach enlightenment, quit Dota.
To learn about your true self, quit Dota.
To free your mind, quit Dota.
To master your desires, quit Dota.
To learn the true meaning of life, quit Dota.
I am your master.
I am your guide.
I am the lighthouse in the stormy sea.
122 344 566 788 91010

On 16/04/13, the title of the streams changed again to "I Am Your Guide", and by the third such stream, the image in the bottom-right changed to a creepy old photo.

On 16/04/15, around 4:09 pm CST, a new stream appeared, entitled "Are you ready?", displaying a timer counting down to 5:00pm CST 16/04/15.

The Puzzle Chase

Do Not Play TF2

On 16/04/15, at 5:00 pm CST, the countdown text changed to say "GO!", with the background becoming an image from Team Fortress 2, and the music changing to be TF2 music (the same track was used during the Codi ARG). After a few seconds, an image of Snoo, the mascot of reddit, also appeared, leading to Discord user Picapi_ finding this /r/TF2 post linking to the site donotplaytf2.news by /u/thegreatalmightyderp, who had previously posted about an update to the Teragon website.

Chapter 1

On Page 2 of the blog, /chapter1/ was found, which read:

Welcome, welcome.
So, you managed to find the first page. Not bad.
Let’s see if you can keep up the good work. Who knows, we may even have fun together.
M.
----
Go to chapter2
I go up the ramp and emerge from the blue shadows. 
I go straight and enter the wooden house. I immediately turn right and go up a flight of stairs.
I then turn left and go up another flight of stairs. Another left, followed by a right turn, brings me to a dimly-lit corridor. I exit through the gate, turn left and go down by using the stairs. I turn right and go straight on until I reach a closed-off area. I then turn left twice and enter a red refuge.
Where am I?

This was solved by Discord user VintageKeith to be the TF2 map "Dustbowl".

Chapter 2

'Dustbowl' was found to be the password to view Chapter 2, which read:

So, you know your TF2.
Let’s be honest, though, that was an easy one.
Let’s try something a little bit harder, shall we, friend?
M.
Go to chapter3

along with this image. Discord user Emoticon noticed that this was the Star Wars language Aurabesh and translated it to "the password of the new page is weirdalphabet".

Chapter 3

When 'weirdalphabet' was entered as the password, Chapter 3 read:

So far, I’m rather impressed. For a bunch of random people off Reddit, you’re actually quite clever. Except for the part where you told people on /r/tf2 that it was an ARG before they had a chance to figure it out themselves and maybe have a bit of fun too.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend about this little experiment I wanted to run.
I told him no one would be able to solve my little puzzles.
Looks like, so far, I’m wrong.
Or maybe my first few puzzles have just been way too easy.
Rather tricky to say, wouldn’t you agree?
M.
chapter4
SLITUUNA

The first line refers to a comment made by /u/whizzer0 on the /r/tf2 post stating "no don't worry it's an arg", despite this post being deleted minutes after it was originally posted and long before chapter 3 was found.

The first 5 lines of the page spelt "SAILOR." "SLITUUNA" is an anagram of "NAUTILUS," Greek for "sailor."

This was solved by Discord user Crauss to be a reference to the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, in which the sailor Captain Nemo piloted the submarine Nautilus.

Chapter 4

The password of Chapter 4 was "nemo", yielding this message:

How clever was that last puzzle? I mean, seriously, how clever was that?
The first letters of each line giving you the word SAILOR, the Nautilus anagram… Come on, admit it, it was cool.
Anyhoo, you did well, friend. So far, you have exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations, so that’s… good, I guess.
Maybe it’s time I introduce myself, don’t you think?
Name’s Malena. Don’t blame me for it, blame my parents.
I’m 17, bored as hell and I wanted to try a little experiment with ya’ll.
Hence the weird stream, the equally weird TF2 page and the riddles.
As I’ve said before, I’m fairly certain you won’t be able to reach the end of your journey. Not that 
I don’t have faith in random strangers on the Internet (although, to be fair, I kinda don’t), but, well, my mind is a bit weird. 
Scratch that. It’s REALLY weird. And I’m not sure you’ll be up to solving some of the puzzles that warped mind can come up with.
You should, though. There’s a reward waiting for you at the end of the journey.
So, let’s continue, friends.
Malena
-----------
thefirststep
++++++++++[>+>+++>+++++++>++++++++++<<<<-]>>>+++++++++. -. ———. <++. >++++++++++. ———. <. >—–. +. ++++++++++++++++. —————–. +++++++. ——-. ++++++++++++. <. >++++++. <. >. —-. -. +++++.

Some time later, the hint beneath the horizontal line changed to this:

thefirststep
PMR PG ODSSV D DPMD
(Looks like WordPress messes with Brainfuck code. Oh well… I guess that one is on me.)

The hint was solved by /u/Tmonkx . By shifting each letter one to the left on a QWERTY keyboard, the following message was found:

ONE OF ISAAC S SONS

===The Journey Begins===

The password to thefirststep was discovered to be Jacob, one of Isaac's sons. thefirststep contained the following message along with a video.

Are my puzzles that easy or what? I have the weird feeling I’ve been giving you baby puzzles until now.
Yes, I know, I should congratulate you and all but I do have the feeling I’m the one who messed up here.
Are you that good or is it me just being bad at making puzzles?
Kind of an irritating problem to solve, don’t you think?
Unless I’m looking at this the wrong way.
Really, there isn’t much else I can do right now except to give you a new, harder puzzle to solve.
Are you up to the task? We’ll see.
Malena
------
gettingcloser
133211 x02220 x32010 022100 xx0232

It was quickly noted that the first letter of each sentence formed the word "Ayakura", a cryptical Discord user who was also mentioned a few times in the Teragon ARG. Ayakura decoded the numbers as chords which would read "faced", the password to the next page.

Getting Closer

gettingcloser contained the following text:

I’m watching you. Watching you on Reddit and watching you on Discord as well.
Somehow, it amuses me to see you try to solve my puzzles. Or see you look at someone’s comment history and assume a certain website is part of my little game when it’s not.
Don’t mind me though, I’m very easily amused. Which is somewhat weird because I’m also very easily bored.
I’m a huge contradiction wrapped in a tiny girl’s body.
By the way, side note: if you reached this page through non-conventional means: you can chat with other solvers over at the /r/gamedetectives’ official Discord server over at http://discord.me/gamedetectives . Join if you want, or just keep solving stuff alone if that’s more your thing, friend.
So, how are ya’ll doing? I mean, you can’t answer me but I thought I’d ask. I at least like to try to pretend to be polite. It’s better than nothing, right?
Malena
-------
chocolatecake
ACCCGTAAGAAGGAACTC

The string at the bottom of the page was decoded, once again, by Ayakura using this website, to read "waffle".

Chocolate Cake

chocolatecake contained the following text and an image:

Let me tell you a little bit about me:
I am 17, I live in Spain and I’m a terribly average student. I like video games, writing fiction and I read a lot of spirituality books.
And you, who are you?
Malena
vessel

The password, 896745 was discovered by Discord user Crauss after decoding the image from base 60 to 10 using the following equation:

4*60^3+9*60^2+5*60^1+45*60^0

Far too fast

vessel had the following text along with another image:

Fast. Way too fast.
You guys are good.
OK, let’s increase the difficulty a bit.
Good luck with this one, boyos.
Malena
----
anewchallenge

/u/Ayakura and Crauss managed to find the page using the 2 image fragments and overlaid the image on the blog's paragraph, giving the string:

AnrguosdTyeufpL

A few hours passed by, with vessel.html's picture being replaced with one that included hints - in the form of hangman-esque dashes:

---- - ------- ---

Afterwards, Discord user Immortius combined the hint with the provided string to get

pyro s default gun

As pointed out by Discord user Acebats, TF2 Pyro's default gun is indeed the shotgun, which turned out to be the correct password to unlock /anewchallenge/.

Malena's Mysterious Musical Mind Map

/anewchallenge/ featured a video and an image, and read:

Let’s talk for a moment about the Twitch stream (twitch.tv/thehiddenmessage) and its meaning.
As I mentioned earlier, I read a lot of books about spirituality. The goal of my stream was to try to attract people who might share the same interest.
My beliefs are not limited to a single religion. I pick things I like in every religion, ancient or contemporary, I study them and if they fit within my belief system, I add them to that system.
To me, that’s the only correct way to approach religion or spirituality: keeping an open mind and focusing on what really matters, not on the fluff.
Malena
------
thestruggle
UGBTT EEBRRGW EMKKRWPPR (SSS)RRHBWBTONDB

Some of the names of streets on the map had been changed, spelling out "what is my name" (as highlighted here) leading to the password "malena".

Spanish Inquisition

/thestruggle/ read as follows:

Congratulations, you managed to ignore the irrelevant information and focus on the right stuff. Not bad. Not bad at all, if I can say so myself.
Well done, you won. End of the road. No more challenges. You did well.
I hope that you will soon visit Spain.
Malena

While this looked like the end of the road, Spain was actually the name of the next page.

Statuesque

Spain read as follows, and also contained an image of a statue:

You don’t want to give up, do you? OK fine, let’s continue.
You may actually beat this whole thing. At first, I definitely thought you wouldn’t, but you seem to be proving me wrong.
So, as a reward, I think I’m going to tell you a little bit more about me.
I live with my mother in a house near the sea. I have two sisters, an older one who is now off to college and a younger one who is worthless. Seriously, she’s terrible.
My best friend’s name is called Sylvia. She’s the one who helped me come up with those puzzles, so I’ll of course blame her in case anything goes wrong with one of those challenges I’m throwing at you.
Now, let’s move on to the next step, shall we?
Malena

The statue was revealed to be Michelangelo's 'Bacchus'.

It is a mystery

Upon /mystery/'s discovery, it simply read:

Coming soon.

However, on 2016/04/16, the page changed briefly to a simple html page reading:

Do not trust her.

It was shortly thereafter changed to a proper page, featuring this image:

And this is what happens when I underestimate you… I go to sleep, thinking you won’t solve BOTH of those puzzles in the meantime and, when I wake up, I find out you did and are now staring at a Coming Soon page. How rude of me, right?
Anyhoo, Bacchus. Isn’t he a fun god? The god of drinking and excess. You see, people nowadays tend to associate god with a stern man who judges you based on what is wrong and what is right. Our ancestors, however, knew that there was more to religion than that. They knew that they also had to make it fun somehow. And scary. Truly, the ancient Roman and Greek pantheons are fascinating.
Malena
sleepytime

Discord users turtlefish and Crauss realised that this was a Templar cipher, which decoded to read "goodmemories", the password to /sleepytime/.

Eternal Slumber

/sleepytime/'s password was indeed "goodmemories", yielding this:

You know, there’s not much for an 18 year-old girl like me to do over here in the Spanish countryside.
I get bored very easily, so I try to entertain myself by coming up with little puzzles and ciphers for my friends.
Before you start jumping to conclusions though, you and I are not friends. Yet. After all, we’ve only just met.
But, who knows, maybe one day we will become friends. And talk about philosophy, spirituality and all sorts of interesting things.
Would you like that? I know I would.
Being lonely is not particularly fun.
Malena
------
loneliness

Discord user picapi_ noticed the inconsistency in age - Malena was previously stated to be 17. A while later, the puzzle section of /sleepytime/ updated:

loneliness
There’s none so blind as those who will not see

A while after this, /sleepytime/ updated again, embedding this video/

A while after this, /sleepytime/ added this image of a man jumping in a city.

The puzzle was eventually solved by Discord user whizzer0 to lead to the page /conclusions/, as hinted at by "jumping to conclusions", rather than /loneliness/. The puzzle was eventually solved by Discord user whizzer0 to lead to the page /conclusions/, as hinted at by "jumping to conclusions", rather than /loneliness/.

Jump into Spain

The password to /conclusions/ was "loneliness", yielding this text and this image of the Spanish coat of arms:

Have you ever been to Spain? (No, not the page on my site, the real country).
Overall, it’s pretty nice and the country has a pretty long and complex history, which makes it interesting.
I’d like to visit some other countries though, like Italy maybe or France. Maybe one day.
Malena
------
voyage

/voyage/ briefly changed, again showing nothing but this text:

She's lying.

The red herring /loneliness/ was removed from the site at an unknown time after this. After having run around in circles for a while the page was updated with an image, Pointing to stenography. Doing stenography on the image the spanish coat of arms gave the text "Isy ghwr nogebobtev rtdimlnx zn p nimhekp ou txaiel", a vigenere with a key of spain's motto, "plusultra". This translated to "The only worthwhile resource in a country of idiots". After some time trying everything one could want in a country of idiots, this image appeared, shortly followed by an image of The Administrator from TF2. These references linked to "australium" a highly sought after material in the world of TF2, which is the password to the next page.

Blast from the Past

Well, that sure took you a long time and quite a few hints. My best friend, Lea, helped me come up with this one. I have to admit, she’s a bigger TF2 fan than I am and she’s the one who told me everything about Australium.
You are getting close to the end, by the way. And I’m close to losing that bet I made with Lea. Grumphh.
Malena
------
onemorestep
In the city of John the Baptist, there once was a very pious man.
After the fall of the house adorned with six spheres, he came into power and tried to impose his strict religious dogma onto the population of the city.
Unfortunately, the city turned on him and he was put to death, along with two of his brethren, in front of a very famous building.
That building will lead you to the next step.

Shortly after this message, the message "She is not who she says she is" as shown for a short time. Later, an additional message was added:

See the truth. Add "_notes" at the end of each page you visited. Password is "bitntestnotes"

Following this, notes can be seen for every puzzle, compiled here. Someone named "GB" is referenced in these notes. A Teragon Group analyst named GB was briefly mentioned in the original Teragon ARG, suggesting a link between the two (though this was likely a coincidence.)

More hints

After hours of searching around a new hint appeared. "You know there are places on Reddit where someone would have given you the answer in less than five minutes, right?" Inspired by this hint, the solvers made a post on /r/AskHistorians.

5 minutes later, another hint appeared: "A temporary fall from grace is a fall nevertheless." Some time later, a new image appeared confirming suspicions that the house in the riddle was the medici house, followed by another image, this time of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Using all of these hints, solvers pieced together the location: Palazzo Vechio, where the priest Girolamo Savonarola was executed.

Natural Beauty

The password to /onemorestep/ was "palazzovecchio". It contained a link to a youtube video with an image of Barcelona, Spain - Park Güell.

Yesterday, I was playing with my dog in the little garden in front of my house.
I was trying to come up with new stuff for you guys. New puzzles, puzzles that would really make you think.
I’m afraid this one won’t make you think. It’s quite simple really.
I’d be surprised if you weren’t able to solve it in less than 5 minutes. Yes, surprised and a bit disappointed too.
Malena
ahigherspirit

Taking the first letter of the name of each character making a sound in the video yields "messed", the password for the next page.

Winter is Coming

/ahigherspirit/ contained more text and an image:

I have to run somewhere and take my two bros on an errand for my mom. I thought I’d give you a hard one to make sure you don’t see another one of those damn “Coming soon” pages.
Malena
anewdestination

"Malena" once again made an error by stating that she had two brothers instead of two sisters. The drawings on the face of Mance Rayder matched this subway system and the X marks out the "libia" station. Some time later, "libia" became the password for the next part.

Now in theatres

Contents of /anewdestination/:

Coming soon.
Oh well. Glad you found the answer though. Sorry about the mix-up. Looks like stations were planned and never opened. So, Libia it is.
Oh, and congratulations on “finding” Savonarola.
Malena

Soon, the page updated to include:

theredvan
4376897911236665

This was then promptly removed. Then, the page updated again, with different text:

theyellowvan
4377159311233325
The bald man will show you the way
The man in the blue shirt with no face is looking straight at you
The masked gangster looks at you menacingly
The dapper gentleman calmly smokes a cigarette.
Forget everything you heard about a red van. I’m doing this on my mobile while bringing my two sisters to the store. It was an honest mistake.
A fierce-looking gentleman is holding both his hands in the air.

The page later updated with an image of the Bounty Hunter from Dota which was actually the thumbnail to this video. The page later updated again with the words "Those numbers must mean something. Maybe they need to be split?". After more fruitless efforts, a new update ruled out all previous progress with "Shockingly, this puzzle does not involve any kind of cipher." Another hint was later given: "16 digits. Or 2 groups of 8." Yet another hint was later added - an image of the Coliseum in Rome, with the title "roman-calendar.jpg" Progress continued not to be made whilst hints did the opposite: "Lampredotto – Hamburger – Porchetta – Hotdog – Salsicce" was added. One final hint was eventually added: "Two groups of eight numbers. Maybe with missing punctuation.". This led Discord user Crauss to realise the numbers were coordinates. Discord users Bandit and whizzer0 found that the coordinates went to a street in Florence; by viewing Google's Street View for those coordinates, a yellow van could be seen with the words "I'Bandito" on it.

The Bandit Van

The password for /theyellowvan/ was indeed "ibandito", yielding this text that suggested that the character known as ? ? ? may be the liar:

There’s a girl who hates me at school. She’s been turning my life into a nightmare for the past two years.
She’s the one who’s been posting stuff on here, saying I’m a liar and what not.
And, you know what breaks my heart?
You seem to believe her.

Beneath this was a frowny face from another site.

Following this, the text on /anewdestination/ changed:

The bald man will show you the way as he exits his car.
The man in the blue T-shirt with no face is looking straight at you.
The masked gangster looks at you menacingly.
The dapper gentleman calmly smokes a cigarette while waiting for his food.
Forget everything you heard about a red van. I’m doing this on my mobile while bringing my two sisters to the store. It was an honest mistake.
A fierce-looking gentleman is holding both his hands in the air.

Following this, /theyellowvan/ added more text:

Anyway, last night, I had astrangedream.
In that dream, I was in a weird city. It didn’t look like any city I know, it was like a college of different Spanish cities, like Barcelona mixed in with Madrid, etc…
I was walking down a street when, suddenly, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around. It was a tall man in a top hat. Although I had never seen him, I somehow seemed to remember his weathered old face.
“You should not be outside at this time, Miss,” he said. I told him that it wasn’t that late and that I felt perfectly safe. “You shouldn’t,” he replied with a sly smile at the corner of his mouth.
I walked away, feeling slightly shaken, and entered a nearby shop. It was a shop unlike any other in the real world. It sold every single product on Earth, but it did so in the tiniest possible room. Basically, you had to tell the assistant what you wanted, push on a button and then — poof! — suddenly that item appeared out of thin air, ready for you to purchase. I immediately decided to purchase a horse, two chairs and three palloons. Since I couldn’t see myself carrying all those items back to my house, I asked to get them delivered. That’s where the clerk replied “Oh, but they were already at your house, miss.” Then he turned around, reached for something under his desk and pulled out the longest knife I have ever seen.
I ran out of the store as quickly as I could but, while I was shopping, the street had somehow changed. I was now in the middle of an Italian street instead of a Spanish one. I crossed the busy street in a hurry and took a quick glance behind me. The shop assistant was still in persuit, knife in hand.
I started running down the street, calling for help. Needles to say, none of the people in my dream seemed even remotely interested into helping me. They just stood there, watching. Some were even laughing and pointing at me. I distinctly remember two grown woman pointing at me, while talking to their little children. “You see, girls, if you don’t study in school, this is how you’ll end up,” she said.
Out of breath, I stopped running after about five minutes. The shop assistant was gone, as far as I could tell. I took a deep breath and tried to compose myself. Suddenly, I felt something sticky and warm on my leg. I looked down and saw that my entire right leg was covered in blood. Under the sunset light, that blood looked black and shiny.
At that point, I woke up, my heart pounding real hard in my chest. 
Malena

Discord users Pol, whizzer0, VintageKeith, and wyh322 noticed various typos in the passage. VintageKeith realised that the corrected letters spelt "abuse".

Do Play TF2

The password for /astrangedream/ was indeed "abuse", which simply read "Coming soon." This then changed to:

Catch me if you can.
45.121.185.232:27051
Malena
------
yournextgoal

This prompted users to join a Team Fortress 2 server, with Malena's Steam account being tracked down (albeit being the same account as the puppetmaster, gayfarang, with a different name). Malena spoke in the game's chat a few times after realizing that sprays are disabled:

Malena : I didn't say anything. But I gave you the password.
Malena : I am a building with a giant hole in the roof.
Malena : Follow me.

pantheon-files

The "Building with a giant hole in the roof" was realized to be the Pantheon in Rome. "pantheon" was indeed the password for /yournextgoal/, which promptly updated to say

Can I trust you? Can I really trust you guys?

A series of additions/edits followed, resulting in:

Also…. and I know this is a bit of a weird question but… do you like me?
I didn’t mean that in a romantic way. I just meant… you know, “like.”
Malena
almostthere
SeFrShMa
If S is I, what is F?
Tip: /r/dota2 may guide you on your journey to solve this puzzle as well as the next ones.
Tip 2: I think that bad friend I told you about earlier is the one using all of my site’s bandwidth at the moment. Unless one of you guys is using a scanner or a tool like that? But no, I’m sure it can’t be you. You’re too nice for that.

A post on /r/dota2 indeed did help solve the puzzle to be "major":

Seattle, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Manila. The Major cities.

Tonight's the Night

/almostthere/ contained this and an image:

Don’t worry, I won’t keep on making you jump through hoops forever.
My puzzles will end tonight. Tonight, I will finally know if you are worthy of not.
Malena
almostover

The page was briefly edited to read:

I will tell you everything tonight.

After this was changed back, the page was edited/added to a number of times with hints:

/r/dota2 may still be of help.
Synonyms.
 You are looking for a place that does not exist.

An image and a video were also added. The solution was found to be "Crixalis", the name of the Sand King in the Scintillant Waste in Dota.

Not Quite There

/almostover/ contained:

See? I told you the fine people over at /r/dota2 would be of great help.
You still have not really answered my question though: do you like me? Not that I’m shallow or anything, but I like to be liked, if that makes sense. Or, to be more accurate, I don’t like being disliked.
Yeah, I know, I’m weird.
Malena
-------
anoldfriend

The puzzle was added shortly after:

KNHAEEO.P..NIACTTHT.OWCAARRV.EEALI.. (8)

This was very quickly solved to be a Burrows-Wheeler Transform

.VOICE.PACK.A.HERO.WITH.AN.ALTERNATE

This referred to "spectre", the password for /anoldfriend/.

The end of a road

/anoldfriend/ intially read:

Well, that was way too fast. I can’t keep up here.

This was then added:

The next (and last) puzzle will be ready shortly.
Malena

Later on, the final puzzle was added with this video containing a series of beeps:

theendoftheroad

The beeps were Morse Code, translating to:

I WAS AT TI1. I STILL PLAY DOTA COMPETITIVELY BUT I HAVE NOT BEEN TO ANY OTHER TI. I AM WELL-KNOWN FOR PLAYING MORPHLING.

This referred to the Dota player "lakelz", also the password for /theendoftheroad/, which read:

Well done.
You have solved your final puzzle
There is someone else who wants to talk to you. Come back here in 10 minutes.

The start of another

Following this, the page blanked out in another hack, which was soon followed by the addition of this URL:

https://electronicfreedomsociety.wordpress.com/

The homepage of Do Not Play TF2 changed to redirect to Google's homepage.