[wolfd]

I doubt it, due to how the leak is purportedly from 2017/2018 code, and according to the tweet from SteamDB is the version that is included to Source engine licensees.

The original hl2 code leak was a fan from Germany that hacked into Valve's network and stole a version. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/06/what-drove-one-half-l...

There are YouTube channels like VNN that rely on Valve leaks, but most of it seems like running `strings` on their update files. He does claim to have some inside sources, but they mostly seem to provide social commentary on Valve internal politics.

[Cyph0n]

It was actually leaked to VNN by a Valve employee. VNN then gave it to a small group of friends, one of which went crazy and leaked it.

Refer to this r/Games thread for more details: https://reddit.com/r/Games/comments/g61v4x/_/fo6r9ef/?contex...

[arrivance]

VNN indicates that he never had access to the code.

https://twitter.com/ValveNewsNetwor/status/12529744828321382...

He also re-tweeted this account of the events https://twitter.com/JaycieErysdren/status/125300494000139878...

[AgentME]

Here's a video from Tyler (VNN) talking explaining the leak: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/599332362

tl;dr: A Valve employee in 2016 told Tyler about a few things Valve was working on. Tyler kept the chat log and shared it with friends. Unrelatedly, TF2 and CSGO's code was semi-publicly leaked in 2018, and one of the friends found and held onto that. Tyler and the friends worked on a fan project together named F-Stop, after an unreleased Valve project, but then one of the friends had a falling out with the rest of them and published this stuff together, probably to embarrass him for sharing the chat log and maybe to make him look involved in the TF2/CSGO leak.

A little more confirmation: https://twitter.com/TeamFortress/status/1253186403900420098