Team Fortress 2/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Trivia Tropes used:

  • Development Hell: The last four Meet The Team videos (Sniper, Spy, Medic and Pyro). The other five classes had been released relatively early on, but then it took 2 years to finish both Sniper and Spy, another 2 just to do Medic's, and another year for Pyro.
    • Issue #7 for the TF2 comic's huge arc, it still hasn't been release in 2019 or the next coming years.
  • Fake Nationality: None of the characters is of the same nationality and region as their voice actor, except maybe the Pyro.

Chet Failzek, writer: We wanted to make it sound like what Americans in the '60s would have imagined these people sounded like, not what they actually sounded like.

  • Fan Nickname:
    • A Demoman wielding his melee weapon and shield is referred to as a "Demoknight" or "Sword and Board". "Targelander" and "Targe Demo" are also considered acceptable parlance for one with the Chargin' Targe and Eyelander. Likewise, a Demoman with a frying pan, Bounty Hat, shutter shades, and targe is called a Demopan.
    • Bitter players have taken to calling the Pyro "W+ M1" (forward movement + attack) due to the (alleged) notion that the only thing you need to do to win as Pyro is charge forward.
      • His axe taunt has been called Guitar Pyro.
    • Pick the Huntsman as your primary and prepare for the barrage of "Cuntsman", "Huntspam", or "Lucksman".
      • Same for "Fail-a-Nature" for Force-a-Nature.
    • The Direct Hit has been called the "Direct Shit" on occasion for its general lack of effectiveness in all but the right hands.
      • In similar fasion, the Loch-and-Load has become the "Lucks-and-Lolz" to some for it's similar directy-hit-only damage style.
    • A Soldier with the Frying Pan and Stainless Pot may be called a Kitchen Warrior.
    • A Pyro with the Gas Jockey's Gear set and Detonator is a Det Jockey, while one with that set and the Flare Gun is a Flare Jockey.
    • An Engineer with the Frontier Justice and Gunslinger is a Revengineer, named for his ability to deploy Mini-Sentries quickly, get some kills, then kill opponents with "revenge crits" after the sentry has been destroyed.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!:
    • Scout: Nathan Vetterlein is the infected church guy in Left 4 Dead. This got an Actor Allusion.
    • Soldier: The Soldier is voiced by Rick May, the voice of Wolf, General Pepper, Leon Powalski, and Andross in Star Fox 64.
    • Pyro/Spy: Dennis Bateman also voiced the helicopter pilot who picks up the Survivors at the end of No Mercy; he recorded a set of unused lines for that character which would have added storyline continuity between the missions.
    • Demoman/Heavy: Gary Schwartz also voices the radio voice at the airport runway in Left 4 Dead.
    • Engineer: For the Nintendo players out there, the Engineer is voiced by Grant Goodeve, also known for Star Fox Assault Wolf.
      • When you're playing First Encounter Assault Recon, you'll eventually realize that Harlan Wade is one seriously disturbed Genetic Engineer.
    • Medic: Medic's voice actor also played as Travis Touchdown.
    • Sniper: John Patrick Lowrie does Sniper and most of the random male characters in Half-Life 2. And he's married to Ellen McLain, who does the Overwatch, Announcer, and GLaDOS (as stated below). Definitely Valve's go-to couple -- one or the other of them has been in every game Valve have put out since HL2.
    • Announcer: One wonders if the same computer powers the Combine overwatch, GLaDOS, and the team loudspeaker announcement system.
      • Put this way: One wonders if the Administrator worked for Cave Johnson as a secretary, and then went crazy after her personality was copied into GLaDOS, and to cover things up, Johnson had her "sold" to already crazy brothers Redmond and Blutarch. And then the Combine simply copied her personality when they invaded Earth much later.
    • While otherwise forgettable, in the French dub, Heavy is Ahnold and Sam Fisher, Soldier is Russell Crowe and Sniper is Goku.
  • Official Fan-Submitted Content
  • The Other Darrin: Due to Grant Goodeve being unavailable at the time, in Expiration Date the Engineer's voiced by Nolan North.
  • Promoted Fangirl: Makani, a popular fan artist, created a very popular fanart of the Administrator, which eventually became her official design. She was later hired by Valve, and draws most of the comics that Valve releases these days.
    • Promoted Fanboy: Tony Paloma (AKA Drunken F00l), creator of the immensely popular SourceOP plugin and the infamous idling program, as well as (unjust) crafter of a Golden Wrench. He ended up being VAC-banned. Fast-forward to 2011: Tony is now working for the TF2 team, after being hired by Valve last summer.
    • Valve often features fan works on TF2's main blog as well.
  • Prop Recycling: Noticeable in the interior of some maps are a pair of extension cords that go from one wall and plug into an adjacent wall. Playing PropHunt in different maps allows the player to notice familiar-looking props. The trope is averted with promotional items (even items that appear in another Valve title such as Bill's Hat), as new models are created to fit the style of the game.
  • Schedule Slip: Valve Time applies.
    • Notably, the 119th Update was supposed to be the 100th Update.

"It's been a busy afternoon here iterating, polishing and playtesting a blog post to commemorate Team Fortress' one hundredth update. As often happens, we emerged from thirty minutes of Valve Time, covered with bed sores and sporting full beards, to discover weeks had passed. While we were out, somebody here shipped 19 more updates originally scheduled for release in 2008."

  • Talking to Himself: The Heavy and the Demoman share the same voice actor, while the Spy and the Pyro share another.
  • Teasing Creator: Valve on the gender of the Pyro and on the timing/content of future updates.
  • Trope Namer:
  • What Could Have Been:
    • The game itself underwent many, many, MANY different iterations before the development team settled on the current gameplay and visual design. (For example, it was originally pitched as a combination FPS/RTS with a realistic art style, with a class specializing in commanding the other units around somehow.)
    • Character design similarly had a lot of changes:
      • The Heavy once had a mullet.
      • The Medic, Engineer, and Spy wore their class badges on armbands.
      • The Scout's apparent age and toughness bounced all over the place.
      • The Demoman was just plain stereotypical Scottish (kilt and all).
      • The Pyro wasn't always The Faceless.
      • The Sniper looked a lot older and crazier.
      • The Soldier looked more like he actually fought in the army.
    • There were a few more ideas for Meet the Medic which didn't make it in due to killing the pacing and/or it not really meshing with The Verse's general aesthetic (BLU Spy's still living severed head is a nod to one of the scrapped ideas). Finally, they settled on THE iconic image (a Medic ÜberCharging a Heavy) and built the story around that.
      • Meet the Sandvich had many scrapped lines. Some of which are:

Scout: Give me back my leg bone! *whack* Don't hit me with it!
Soldier: You cannot hurt me! Pain does not hurt! *crack* I stand corrected!
Scout: He's like a bear! He's like a big, shaved bear that hates people!

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