hacks were necessary but this works

lua/easychat/easychat.lua

@@ -146,7 +146,12 @@ local function say_override(ply, msg, is_team, is_local)
 	if #msg == 0 then return end
 
 	if SERVER then
-		RunConsoleCommand(is_team and "sayteam" or "say", msg)
+		if not IsValid(ply) then
+			RunConsoleCommand(is_team and "sayteam" or "say", msg)
+			return
+		end
+
+		EasyChat.ReceiveGlobalMessage(ply, msg, is_team or false, is_local or false)
 	end
 
 	if CLIENT then
@@ -228,10 +233,8 @@ if SERVER then
 	end
 
 	function EasyChat.SendGlobalMessage(ply, str, is_team, is_local)
-		_G.EC_PLAYER_SAY_CALL = true
-		local msg = safe_hook_run("PlayerSay", ply, str, is_team, is_local)
-		_G.EC_PLAYER_SAY_CALL = false
-
+		-- we run our own hook because we use the original PlayerSay to detect native source calls
+		local msg = safe_hook_run("ECPlayerSay", ply, str, is_team, is_local)
 		if type(msg) ~= "string" then return end
 
 		msg = EasyChat.ExtendedStringTrim(msg)

lua/easychat/engine_chat_hack.lua

@@ -1,21 +1,35 @@
 local TAG = "EasyChatEngineChatHack"
 
 if SERVER then
+	local existing_callbacks = hook.GetTable().PlayerSay or {}
+	for identifier, callback in pairs(existing_callbacks) do
+		hook.Remove("PlayerSay", identifier)
+		hook.Add("ECPlayerSay", identifier, callback)
+	end
+
+	hook.NativeAdd = hook.NativeAdd or hook.Add
+	function hook.Add(event_name, identifier, callback)
+		if event_name == "PlayerSay" then
+			event_name = "ECPlayerSay"
+		end
+
+		hook.NativeAdd(event_name, identifier, callback)
+	end
+
 	-- handle messages that are run by the engine (usually the say or sayteam commands)
-	hook.Add("PlayerSay", TAG, function(ply, msg, is_team, is_local)
-		if _G.EC_PLAYER_SAY_CALL then return end
+	hook.NativeAdd("PlayerSay", TAG, function(ply, msg, is_team, is_local)
 		if not IsValid(ply) then return end -- for console just let source handle it I guess
 
 		EasyChat.ReceiveGlobalMessage(ply, msg, is_team, is_local or false)
 		return "" -- we handled it dont network it back the source way
 	end)
 
-	local PLY = FindMetaTable("Player")
-	PLY.old_Say = PLY.old_Say or PLY.Say
-
-	function PLY:Say(msg, is_team, is_local)
-		EasyChat.ReceiveGlobalMessage(self, msg, is_team, is_local)
-	end
+	-- make the default behavior follow the gamemode PlayerSay one
+	hook.Add("PostGamemodeLoaded", TAG, function()
+		function GAMEMODE:ECPlayerSay(ply, msg, is_team, is_local)
+			return self:PlayerSay(ply, msg, is_team, is_local)
+		end
+	end)
 end
 
 -- this is inspired off