The TF2 Scoop

Joe Roobol

Hello everyone! The new year brings many new things, including news for some old favourites. I wanted to touch on some noteworthy goings on in the community of Team Fortress 2, a team favourite here at GameSparked. For the sake of not turning this into a full in-depth run-down on Team Fortress 2 and its community, be warned that I’ll be assuming the reader has a passing familiarity with TF2 and I’ll be using game terms that the uninitiated may not know. Let’s just dive right in!

Game Updates

The 2012 Smissmas event is now over, however there are still new changes being made in its wake. Other than the new additions to Mann vs. Machine in late December, there are a few things to touch on in trading and the hat economy. First up is Festive- and Genuine-quality weapons and cosmetics can now be listed on the Steam Community Market. For those not in the know, Valve recently launched a service for players to swap in-game items for cold-hard virtual currency with other players. The service rolled out with support for only consumable items such as crates, keys, and paints, with plans to encompass all items if things go well. The update to include Festive and Genuine items marks the first time cosmetics were available to be sold on the service, and some items quickly shot up to prices of over one hundred dollars.

Additionally, Valve has announced that in the coming weeks, a series of hats are to be discontinued and retired from all drop tables. This means that while all currently existing hats in this group will stay as-is, they can no longer be gained in any way. This includes through crafting, random finds, or through the store. The hats in question are the original run of hats, initially released alongside the Sniper vs. Spy update almost four years ago, which also included some long-running favourite weapons such as the Dead Ringer and Jarate, as well as the introduction of the Payload Race game mode.

Community News

A lot of stuff is going on in the community at the moment, between interviews from people at Valve and competitive leagues getting ready for the new season. Gabe Newell recently spoke on the Nerdist podcast to talk about Valve and its games, and revealed that a new TF2 short is being worked on. Newell confirmed that it would be a 15 minute piece, and said that while the team had originally planned for a much more ambitious 90 minutes, it quickly became clear that it would be too difficult to make. PC Gamer’s Craig Pearson held an interview with Robin Walker in the past week to talk about the Mann Co. Store and the Steam Workshop. It’s a very interesting read, and they touch on a wide variety of topics concerning the community’s involvement with the addition of new items and weapons in Team Fortress 2.

Things are starting to gear up on the competitive scene. UGC is getting ready to begin Highlander Season 9 on January 21st and 6v6 Season 11 two days after. Additionally, CEVO‘s preseason starts on the 17th, so get ready for that. Season 2 of the Reddit-run Ready Steady Pan tournament is coming soon as well, with the deadline for team signups ending last week. Finally, last week the videos for TF2 Mixup #5 were released. It’s a celebrity showmatch with all ad revenue made off the videos going directly to charity. The videos are casted by the ever popular STAR_ and Sal, and I recommend checking them out here, here, and here.