I should probably be embarassed for asking these questions, but I can't find the answers anywhere.
In HL1 (TFC) it was possible to change the chat fade time, and also to a certain extent what was shown in the chat window part. Basically what I want to do is to get rid of all messages saying...
I'm answering my own question. Seems Valve updated the client side code to prevent people from playing on 32 slot servers? I see all 32 slot servers are now 30 or 31 as a workaround.