98 Fun Facts About Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 was released in October 2007 as part of which Valve compilation?

The Orange Box bundled Team Fortress 2 with Half-Life 2 and its two Episodes, and launched on October 10, 2007.

Which puzzle game was one of the three brand-new titles in the 2007 compilation that launched TF2?

Portal was one of the box's three new games, beside Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode Two; the compilation launched on October 10, 2007.

What does RED, one of the two teams in TF2, stand for?

Reliable Excavation and Demolition is the red team's cover company, a demolition firm in the game's lore; its rival is a construction firm with a blue logo.

What does BLU stand for?

Builders League United is the blue team's cover company, a construction firm whose feud with the red team's demolition company drives the game's lore.

How many playable classes does Team Fortress 2 have?

Nine classes ship in the game, split into three offense, three defense and three support roles, and all nine have been playable since the 2007 launch.

Which class, a baseball fan from Boston, can double jump and counts twice when capturing points?

The Scout is the fastest class; his default kit is a scattergun, a pistol and a baseball bat, and he captures points at double speed.

'Rocket jumping' at the cost of some health is a signature move of which class?

The Soldier is the jingoistic Midwesterner whose default kit is a rocket launcher, a shotgun and a shovel; firing a rocket at his own feet launches him skyward.

Which class's flamethrower can fire blasts of compressed air that repel enemies and projectiles?

The Pyro is a pyromaniac of unknown gender and origin hidden inside a fire-retardant suit; the flamethrower's airblast reflects rockets and extinguishes burning teammates.

Which class hails from Ullapool, Scotland, and can 'sticky jump' with his own bombs?

The Demoman is a one-eyed Scot from Ullapool who carries a grenade launcher and a sticky bomb launcher, and canonically drinks heavily.

Which class is the slowest in the game and refers to his minigun as 'Sasha'?

The Heavy is the slowest and largest class; his other default weapons are a shotgun and his fists, and he was the first class to star in a promotional short.

Which class deploys sentry guns, dispensers and teleporters?

The Engineer is the team's Texan builder; his wrench both fights and upgrades the sentry guns, dispensers and teleporters he places.

What is the name of the invulnerability meter that the Medi Gun builds while healing teammates?

ÜberCharge is the meter the Medi Gun fills while healing; deploying it grants roughly eight seconds of invulnerability to both healer and patient.

Which class comes from Stuttgart, Germany?

The Medic is the game's German doctor from Stuttgart; his default loadout is a syringe gun, the Medi Gun and a bonesaw.

The throwable jar weapon 'Jarate' belongs to which class?

The Sniper throws the Jarate jar as a secondary weapon; the marksman was raised in the Australian outback and carries a kukri for close work.

Which class carries an invisibility device and can disguise himself as any player?

The Spy, a French operative, cloaks with an invisibility watch and disguises with a cigarette case; his butterfly knife instantly kills an enemy stabbed from behind.

Who voices the Administrator, the announcer who barks objectives over the loudspeakers?

Ellen McLain voices the Administrator; she is also the voice of GLaDOS in the puzzle game that shipped in the same box.

Which actress voices Miss Pauling, the Administrator's assistant?

Ashly Burch voices Miss Pauling; she is also Aloy in the Horizon games and Tiny Tina in the Borderlands series.

In which month and year did Team Fortress 2 go free-to-play?

Team Fortress 2 went free-to-play in June 2011 alongside the Über Update, after in-game cosmetic sales had shown they could fund the game.

How many videos make up the 'Meet the Team' promotional series?

Ten videos were made, one for each class plus Meet the Sandvich; the series ran from May 2007 to its finale on June 27, 2012.

Which of the promotional class videos leaked onto YouTube several days before its intended release?

Meet the Spy leaked onto YouTube in May 2009, days before its planned debut, so Valve published it early.

Which 2014 update was the short 'Expiration Date' released to promote?

Love and War arrived in June 2014 with new taunts and the bread monsters; the fifteen-minute short Expiration Date premiered the day before as its lead-in.

Which cooperative mode, revealed on August 15, 2012, pits players against waves of robots?

Mann vs. Machine launched on August 15, 2012 as the game's cooperative mode, with a team defending against waves of robots across maps like Coal Town and Decoy.

Who is the Australian adventurer and CEO of Mann Co.?

Saxton Hale is the mustachioed Australian who runs Mann Co., the company that sells the game's weapons and hats; he wrestles wildlife in the comics.

In Payload mode, which team must push the explosive cart along the track?

BLU is the attacking team in Payload and must push the cart into the RED base; the mode arrived with the 2008 Gold Rush Update, which also added the first unlockable weapons.

In TF2's Capture the Flag mode, what object stands in for the flag?

An intelligence briefcase is the flag: each team guards one in a basement room, and the classic map for the mode is 2Fort.

How many control points does a King of the Hill map contain?

One control point sits in the middle of a King of the Hill map; a team wins by holding it until its three-minute timer runs out.

Extremely rare hats with particle effects attached are known as what?

Unusuals are the rarest hat quality, each carrying a particle effect such as Burning Flames; most enter the game by being uncrated and they dominate the trading economy.

What is the name of TF2's yearly Halloween event?

Scream Fortress is the yearly Halloween event; it brings haunted map variants, spell-casting and bosses such as the Horseless Headless Horsemann and the eyeball Monoculus.

Which wizard, along with his book the Bombinomicon, is a recurring antagonist of the Halloween events?

Merasmus is the wizard who debuted as a boss on Ghost Fort in the 2012 Halloween event; the lore makes him the rocket-jumping class's long-suffering roommate.

TF2's cartoon look drew on commercial illustrators including Norman Rockwell and whom?

J. C. Leyendecker, the Saturday Evening Post cover artist, was cited with Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell in Valve's 2007 paper on the game's illustrative look.

The original Team Fortress began in 1996 as a free mod for which game?

Quake hosted the original Team Fortress, released in August 1996 by the Australian group TF Software; Valve hired its makers and shipped Team Fortress Classic in 1999.

Under what subtitle was Team Fortress 2 first shown at E3 in 1999?

Brotherhood of Arms was the subtitle on the 1999 E3 showing, a realistic military shooter with commanders and parachute drops that Valve later scrapped for the cartoon style.

Which magazine's annual vaporware list regularly featured Team Fortress 2 during its long silence?

Wired ran the annual Vaporware awards, and Team Fortress 2 placed on the list repeatedly during the eight-year gap between its 1999 showing and its 2007 release.

Which 2009 map introduced the Payload Race mode?

Pipeline debuted on February 24, 2009 as the first Payload Race map, with each team pushing its own cart across three stages.

Which 2016 update added a competitive matchmaking mode?

Meet Your Match launched on July 7, 2016, adding ranked competitive matchmaking and reworking casual play into a matchmaking system.

What hashtag did the community rally behind in a June 3, 2024 protest against the bot problem?

#FixTF2 was the June 3, 2024 campaign against the aimbot bots; an earlier protest used #savetf2 in May 2022, and Valve ran ban waves within weeks of the 2024 push.

The July 2023 update that gave TF2 a record 253,997 players added which community mode?

Versus Saxton Hale, a long-running community mode in which a single player becomes the boss, went official in the July 2023 summer update, which was built largely from community maps and cosmetics.

After voice actor Rick May died in 2020, Valve added what tribute to the game?

A new main menu theme was added in May 2020 as Valve's tribute, alongside temporary statues of the rocket-jumping class May had voiced since launch.

Which 2010 release added a store where items could be bought with real money?

The Mann-Conomy Update of September 30, 2010 opened the Mann Co. Store and introduced trading, laying the groundwork for the free-to-play switch the following year.

Which game engine does Team Fortress 2 run on?

Source is Valve's engine, introduced with Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 in 2004; Team Fortress 2 has run on it since launch.

Which two developers of the original Team Fortress mod led development of Team Fortress 2 at Valve?

Robin Walker and John Cook, two of the Australians behind the 1996 mod, joined Valve in 1998 and steered Team Fortress 2 through its long development.

How many official maps did Team Fortress 2 ship with at launch?

Six maps shipped at launch, among them 2Fort, Well and Hydro; well over a hundred more have been added since, many of them community-made.

Which Texas town is the Engineer's hometown?

Bee Cave, a small town west of Austin, is the hometown in the official bio, which also credits the class with eleven hard-science PhDs.

The Sniper was born in which country before being raised in the Australian outback?

New Zealand is the birthplace the comics give him; as a baby he was sent to Australia and raised there by adoptive parents, the Mundys.

What is the century-long stalemate between the Mann brothers over New Mexico land called?

The Gravel War is the lore's name for the feud: Redmond and Blutarch kept themselves alive with life-extension machines until their brother Gray murdered them both.

What is the 9v9 competitive format limited to one player per class called?

Highlander is the 9v9 format with a single player of each class per team, its name borrowed from the film's catchphrase; Prolander is its 7v7 spin-off.

Which rendering technique gives TF2 its painterly, illustration-inspired look?

Gooch shading, a warm-to-cool tinting technique, was adapted by Valve and paired with rim lighting to give the game its illustration-like look, per its 2007 rendering paper.

Which four classes does TF2's Training Mode teach to new players?

Soldier, Demoman, Engineer and Spy are the four with training courses; the first course, added in the 2010 Mac Update, uses wooden targets and bots on a dedicated map.

A Team Fortress 2 patch fixed a 17-year-old color bug in which piece of the BLU Scout's outfit?

His pants had been brown, like the RED team's, instead of blue. Valve reverted the fix a day later because cosmetic items had been designed around the mistake.

Which $100 Team Fortress 2 item from Valentine's Day 2012 is announced to every player when gifted?

A wedding ring called Something Special for Someone Special broadcasts both names to everyone playing once it is accepted. Players have since used the global message for jokes and protests.

Team Fortress 2's Meet the Soldier video credits which historical figure with inventing fighting?

Sun Tzu gets the credit in a lecture the Soldier delivers to a row of severed BLU heads. He then muddles the claim with the story of Noah and the Ark.

Team Fortress 2 is credited with laying the groundwork for which later multiplayer genre?

Hero shooter games such as Overwatch give each class a personality and backstory, the framework Team Fortress 2 set out in 2007. The label first appeared in publicity for Battleborn in 2014.

Which edible Team Fortress 2 item starred in an iPod-style silhouette ad for the game's Mac release?

The Sandvich sat highlighted in the Heavy's hand against a bright green background. The snack began as a gag in the promotional videos before Valve made it a usable item.

Team Fortress 2 began development as an expansion pack for which Valve game?

Half-Life was still months from release when Valve bought the mod's makers in May 1998, and the sequel was planned as its add-on. The promised year-end launch then slipped all the way to 2007.

Team Fortress 2 was announced in 2013 as the first game to officially work with which VR headset?

Oculus Rift compatibility came through a patch that added a VR Mode, playable with the headset on any public server.

Team Fortress 2's Sniper vs. Spy Update introduced the first of which cosmetics, one for each class?

Hats arrived on the bonus day of the update, among them a Fancy Fedora and a Prussian Pickelhaube. Valve retired the originals from drops, crafting and the store in 2013.

Team Fortress 2's console updates stalled after which platform's owner refused to let them be free?

Xbox 360 owner Microsoft insisted the updates carry a price, so Valve planned to bundle several together to justify one. No patch has reached that version since 2009.

Which planned Team Fortress 2 class was cut because players ignored the orders it gave from above?

The Commander would have played like a real-time strategy game, issuing orders to teammates and AI soldiers. The same early design promised parachute drops over enemy territory.

A 2018 Team Fortress 2 patch blocked crate opening in the Netherlands and which other country?

Belgium and its Dutch neighbor both had local laws making loot boxes illegal, so the July 2018 patch stopped crates from opening in either country.

Team Fortress 2's long delay was often mentioned alongside which other notoriously late shooter?

Duke Nukem Forever kept fans waiting even longer: announced in 1997, it finally shipped in 2011 after 14 years in development.

Which Steam feature grew out of the contribution site Valve built for Team Fortress 2 item makers?

The Steam Workshop began as a way for players to submit maps, weapons and cosmetics. By June 2013 Valve had paid more than $10 million to over 400 contributors.

Which publisher printed Valve's online Team Fortress 2 stories in a 2011 book alongside Left 4 Dead tales?

Dark Horse Comics released the book as Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories. Valve had brought in comic writer Michael Avon Oeming in 2009 to teach its team the format.

Team Fortress 2's first TV commercial premiered in 2013 during which Adult Swim animated series?

The Venture Bros. opened its fifth season with the ad, which showed off in-game accessories created with Adult Swim's help.

Which cosmetic, handed to early Mac players of Team Fortress 2, later served as a trading currency?

Earbuds went to anyone who played on a Mac in the weeks after the June 2010 launch. Traders later priced rare items in "buds", alongside crate keys and crafting metal.

Which weapon, carried by every class in earlier Team Fortress games, did Valve cut from Team Fortress 2?

Hand grenades split the critics: IGN was disappointed to lose them, while PC Gamer UK cheered that they were gone.

Team Fortress 2 splits its classes evenly between Offense, Defense and which third role?

Support is the category for the Medic, the Sniper and the Spy.

Which Team Fortress 2 game mode gives players no respawns, ending when one team is wiped out?

Arena rounds can also be won by seizing a single capture point, which only unlocks once a set time has passed.

Which movement tool does every player get in Team Fortress 2's Mannpower mode, alongside map power-ups?

A grappling hook lets any class swing across the map. Mannpower is based on Threewave CTF, a mod created by former Valve employee David Kirsch.

Which voice actor plays both the French Spy and the gas-masked Pyro in Team Fortress 2?

Dennis Bateman voices two opposites: one speaks in a smooth French accent, the other only in mumbles muffled by a mask.

Which prolific video game actor voices both feuding founders of RED and BLU in Team Fortress 2?

Nolan North, best known as Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series, also plays the brothers' father and a pair of Halloween villains.

What is the first name of the long-lost brother who murders the founders of RED and BLU in Team Fortress 2?

Gray ends his brothers' century-long stalemate by killing them both, then sends a robot army against the family's weapons company.

Which drink fills the glass bottle that Team Fortress 2's Demoman swings as his default melee weapon?

Scrumpy is a strong cider from the West Country of England. Land a critical hit and the bottle's lower half shatters, though it hits just as hard afterwards.

Which curved knife does Team Fortress 2's Sniper carry by default for close combat?

A kukri is the national weapon of Nepal and the utility knife of its Gurkha soldiers. The Sniper keeps one beside a submachine gun for enemies who get too close.

Which Team Fortress 2 launch map was built for Territorial Control, with territories picked at random each round?

Hydro has stayed the lone official map of its type, possibly because Territorial Control is so complex and difficult to design for.

Which Team Fortress 2 item quality tracks the number of kills made with a weapon?

Strange weapons earn new ranks as the tally climbs, each one added to the front of the item's name and announced to everyone on the server.

What name did players give the 2019 Team Fortress 2 bug that flooded the market with rare hats?

The Crate Depression began when a bug made some older crates pay out a top-rarity hat every time, instead of the nominal 1% chance. Valve fixed it the next day.

Which feature-length 2023 fan film recast Team Fortress 2's mercenaries in a psychological horror story?

Emesis Blue was acclaimed as genuine mainstream horror. It came out of a fan-animation scene that thrives because the game's models and assets are so widely available.

The early Meet the Team videos for Team Fortress 2 were adapted from which material written for the cast?

Audition scripts supplied the words: Meet the Heavy is almost line for line the script that actors read when trying out for the part.

Team Fortress 2's Soldier, rejected by the US Army, goes by which alias?

Jane Doe is the placeholder name normally given to a woman whose identity is unknown, an odd fit for a self-styled military man.

What name, borrowed from an ancient Greek thinker, does Team Fortress 2's Medic give his pet dove?

Archimedes appears spattered with blood on the RED team, a nod to Meet the Medic, where the dove burrows inside the Heavy's chest.

Which Team Fortress 2 pocket watch drops a bogus corpse and cloaks its owner the moment he takes damage?

The Dead Ringer is a gold-plated watch engraved with a hummingbird. The hit that sets it off does 75% less damage, buying its owner time to slip away unseen.

Which 2017 Team Fortress 2 update, the last major one for years, welcomed players to Mercenary Park?

Jungle Inferno brought new weapons and maps, replaced weapon skins with War Paint, and overhauled contracts with a gadget called the ConTracker.

Which 2013 Team Fortress 2 update was the first created entirely by community contributors?

Robotic Boogaloo added 57 community-made cosmetics, each a robot version of an existing item. Valve later said its contributors shared $250,000 from the release.

Which 2008 release, Team Fortress 2's first major content patch, introduced the Payload game mode?

The Gold Rush Update also made the Medic the first class to receive new weapons, along with the loadout screen needed to equip them.

Team Fortress 2's Heavy comes from the Dzhugdzhur Mountains of which country?

Soviet Union origins suit the character: a huge Russian man obsessed with firepower, with the highest health of any class.

Which Team Fortress 2 launch map sets rival bases facing each other across a covered bridge?

2Fort remakes a Team Fortress Classic map of the same name, and was the sequel's first official Capture the Flag map.

Which Team Fortress 2 status is earned by killing one opponent four times without them killing you back?

A Domination makes the killer that opponent's Nemesis, flagged on the scoreboard, until the victim ends it with a Revenge kill.

In Team Fortress 2 lore, which fictional golden metal paid for the founders' life-extending machines?

Australium looks much like gold, but every bar is stamped with a lone figure boxing a kangaroo. Rare gold weapon variants in the game are made of it.

Which film director's production company co-developed Team Fortress 2's ball-carrying PASS Time mode?

J. J. Abrams leads Bad Robot, which built the mode with Valve and Escalation Studios. It entered beta in 2015 and became official a year later.

Only 100 copies of which Team Fortress 2 melee weapon were handed out during 2010's Engineer Update?

The Golden Wrench had a chance of dropping whenever a player crafted an item, and each batch of 25 unlocked more of the update. Fourteen owners later deleted theirs for the charity Child's Play.

Team Fortress 2's Heavy appears as an opponent in which 2010 Telltale Games release?

Poker Night at the Inventory let players win Team Fortress 2 items by knocking out a character who had bought into the round with one.

Which short, double-barreled shotgun is the default primary weapon of Team Fortress 2's Scout?

The Scattergun fires the same pellets as the other classes' shotguns, but its damage ramps up harder at close range, rewarding a Scout who gets right in an enemy's face.

Which gadget does Team Fortress 2's Spy clamp onto enemy buildings to disable and slowly destroy them?

A Sapper is a small electric generator labeled ELECTRO-SAPPER. A sapped building stops working at once and keeps taking damage until it is destroyed.

Which Team Fortress 2 comic, released days before the Engineer Update, told how RED and BLU's wars began?

Loose Canon cuts back to an 1850 will reading, where two bickering brothers are left equal shares of the same land so they finally have something of consequence to feud over.

Team Fortress 2's Medieval Mode limits players mainly to melee weapons and does what to chat?

Makes it Ye Olde English: an automatic parser swaps in period phrases, so a typed "hello" comes out as "well meteth".

Which map, the setting of Meet the Soldier, holds Team Fortress 2's permanent statue of a saluting Soldier?

Granary kept its statue after a month-long memorial in May 2020, when saluting figures with commemorative plaques stood on most official maps.

Team Fortress 2's Pyro was added as a playable character to which co-op horror shooter in 2010?

Killing Floor traded favors with Valve's shooter: limited-edition Team Fortress 2 items were awarded to players of the other game in return.

Team Fortress 2's Halloween-only cosmetics can also be worn during which other recurring event?

A full moon unlocks them under a rule added in 2011, with the game estimating the lunar calendar by formula. The main menu changes its background for the occasion.