http://youtu.be/bO7U_a8BOBo

iamRootdamn yttrium, thanks for the writeup. this is all super helpful :)

No prob. I dug through everything in the past and tried to come up with things that are actually relevant. A couple of other things happened, like MvM got fleshed out, some more maps were added to the official list, etcetera, but that's about it.

Oh, and there are a lot of serious rumors that TF2 might get ported to Source 2, which might be a large turning point that makes TF2 matter again, but that much is just a rumor. Dota 2 is known to be getting a Source 2 version released pretty soon, the Source 2 mod tools were actually released last year.

Oh, and TF2 is now on the SteamPipe content format, so installing HUDs and other custom mods is much easier now, and game updates are smaller/faster. The game also loads faster because of it.

If you're interested in HL I could also do a writeup about the changes happening there but I figure you're probably only interested in 6s.

Pardoning all of the community scene, the game has changed quite a bit too. Taunts are really a thing now and have a huge modular system for using multiple in one loadout. Valve tweaked the stock minigun and sticky launcher - the minigun now has a larger spread when first spun up and it chokes back to its original spread after a few seconds of firing. Valve's official notes on the Stickybomb change:

• Stickybombs that detonate in the air now have a radius ramp up, starting at 85% at base arm time (0.8s) going back to 100% over 2 seconds. Stickybombs that touch the world will have full radius.
  
• Stickybombs now have a more visible trail while traveling through the air.
  
• Stickybombs arm particle is slightly more visible.
  
• Damage variance on stickybombs reduced from +/- 10% damage to +/-2%.
  
• Stickybombs now have the same base blast radius as rockets. Changed from 159Hu to 146Hu.

Because, y'know, let's rebalance stock weapons eight years later.

Just a couple of videos that you should watch to get back in the swing of things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBdfwezXkIg - The fuckfest that is this game now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAQbb7aHYvE - I'll probably get some hate for suggesting you watch this, but whether or not you enjoy the humor it really does a good job of showing how dead this game is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLlLQ3LmZWU - Official update and 15 minute short from Valve, added a fuckload of taunts, revamped taunt system, added the conga (which marked the end of TF2), also added some new weapons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aLjwVVNq4s - Community-created official update, pretty much all cosmetics though. No actual content whatsoever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq-YDeEfZWY - Lange's rant about comp TF2. Whether or not you agree with him, it's a really hot topic of discussion right now so it's probably good that you watch it, and b4nny's rebuttal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5USIDoZleAk - The one hour i49 Fragumentary, seriously just watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcDwMwAjTqg - Saxxy 2014 winner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAqGUUv-XJs - Saxxy 2013 winner.

Covering specific new weapons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-i1RnFs6V0 - Pretty good explanation of the Base Jumper, a Soldier shotgun replacement that gives him a parachute. Also works as a Demo primary replacement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB_PjTfKiWo - Multi-class shotgun replacement: Engie, Soldier, Pyro, Heavy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izblRmLXNxk - The "Classic" sniper rifle, which is essentially the sniper rifle from TFC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cowHd7azk_Y - Stickybomb replacement focused on spamming stickies. Traps are impossible. Not many good videos for this one.
There have been a couple of other rebalances but you can read all about those yourself.

New gamemodes:

• Robot Destruction, some kind of shitty Diretide-esque CTF played in a space environment. You infiltrate the enemy base (as tough as shit like 2fort) and damage little robots they have running around to get points. You can also steal their extra guarded intelligence ("reactor core") and bring it back to your own base to steal all of their points. Victory is by point numbers. Kind of interesting but probably won't be played in competitive.
  
• Mannpower, a really weird game mode that takes old 5cp maps and turns them into some kind of CTF thing, with the intel being placed on the last point for each team. The trick here is that everyone gets a grappling hook that they can use to slingshot around the map, and there are also absurdly overpowered powerups that grant bonuses. You can only hold one at a time but they're worth it. Read the wiki page for more on that. Current maps are CTF remakes of Foundry and 5Gorge. Also not a competitive mode whatsoever, but I figured I'd throw these in anyway since they're official.

New competitive maps:

• Metalworks (not sure if this was around for you)
  
• Coalplant
  
• Snakewater
  
• Sunshine

Other things:

• TF2Lobby is dead. TF2 Center is the new lobby system, because Valve still doesn't give a fuck about competitive.
  
• New competitive formats that aren't really played too much - 4v4, which is prone to offclassing, and Arena: Respawn.
  
• Simon from the Yogscast was in a Top 10 TF2 play of the month video, for December 2014. If the conga didn't mark the end of TF2, this must.
  
• All quickplay options from the "play" menu now automatically put you on a Valve server, because fuck Pinion. You can also hit the "show servers" button to specifically pick a server based on player count, ping, and map. Very easy, no bullshit.

lvl4i think like last time (literally a year ago rofl) they did medals, UGC was the last league to get them

still waiting on my season 13 medal from spring 2014

AllealCan we stop calling shit like this 'content'? That way when I see a thread like this I can get excited again

I only called it content because it's taunts, rather than just cosmetics nobody cares about, and it's been awhile since taunts were added (besides the pyro party). Although, considering how many are queued up, I honestly think taunts are going to become as common as hats, so Valve is starting to desensitize the excitement behind them. Plus they're banned in general because of exploits so it's not even like we can use them.

ObiI've... been waiting so long for this.

i legit might make a music video for it

JojoI guess it might be okay if all you wanted to do as roamer is run shotgun and fight scouts.

don't underestimate a 200 hp scout that can rocket jump and be buffed to 300

oh god you guys don't even want to know how overkill the russian taunt is going to be

i'll give you a hint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msQNUzz98D8

edit: it's live, four hours of my life down the drain

Foxi wish people would stop exploiting taunts so we could actually use these in matches/scrims

What exploits have come from non-partner, non-interruptable taunts? So, excluding the Rancho, Pool Party, and all the partners? Is it just the third person camera?

At least they made it so you can't detonate stickies during a taunt... that fucking high five idle corner checking.

edit: ugh what are multiple images on the same line

Hey all, I was digging around and making some posters today in SFM when I came upon a few bits of content that aren't actually in TF2 yet. It appears they were added with the January 12, 2015 update to Source Filmmaker.

The official news post reads:

• Added missing materials from Left 4 Dead Content Pack DLC
  
• Added latest Team Fortress 2 content
  
• fixed Add Team Fortress Item to work on non-hwm player models

They added more than just the "latest Team Fortress 2 content", though. Specifically, they've added a bucketload of new taunts, which mostly involved updating previously class-specific unreleased taunts to be all-class. I've composed previews of all of the new taunts below.

Class-Specific

Scout: "The Boston Breakdance"

http://i.imgur.com/3Kd04EA.png

This taunt was previously added to the Steam Workshop under the same name. It has not yet been marked as approved.

Heavy: "taunt_russian"

http://i.imgur.com/Mw484nb.png

This taunt was leaked into Source Filmmaker sometime last year, but previously only consisted of a "taunt_russian" animation. In the January 12th update, additional "taunt_russianin", "taunt_russianinblend", "taunt_russianinterior", "taunt_russianout", and "taunt_russianoutblend" entries were added. None of these animations appear to function, and based on their nomenclature, it seems like this taunt won't be a partner taunt - partner taunts have "intro", "start", and "success" tags for the idle animations while waiting for a partner. This is an all-class taunt, but only the Heavy variant has all of these additional entries. The Heavy's version is now very long.

All-class (or multi-class)

"taunt_loot"

http://i.imgur.com/sDSgeyL.png

All classes except for the Heavy and Soldier have this taunt so far. It is not a partner taunt and has drastically varying lengths. Additionally, some of the animations appear to be sped up (Engineer), while others are slowed down (Sniper). This hints at this taunt becoming all-class with similar lengths by the time it gets added to the game, a-la the Schadenfreude or Shred Alert.

"taunt_russian"

http://youtu.be/CN99SnJwhCc

Previously only an unreleased Heavy version of this taunt existed. Now it's all-class.

Previously unreleased
Soldier: "taunt_gimmie20"
Soldier: "taunt_slit_throat"
Pyro: "taunt_sit"
All of these taunts have existed for over a year in SFM. As of this most recent update, these taunts no longer work, even though they still have entries. Because of this I have no previews, but I'm sure you could find some with enough googling.

-protoFix all players and props becoming invisible when viewmodel_fov is set to -360/360 after a short period of time.

Fix tracers not being disabled/game crashing with viewmodel_fov set to 0.

This is probably not a big deal for many, but people who played without tracers and viewmodels for years are getting fucked over right now.

Valve specifically stated in patch notes a couple weeks ago to stop using viewmodel_fov 0 to disable viewmodels. Use r_drawviewmodel instead, and the brand new command r_drawtracers_firstperson 0 to disable self tracers.

See the Feb 11 patch notes for more info.

EDIT: Apparently I can't see when you posted, but considering the thread was started on the 9th, my apologies if you posted before this patch.

kounterpartstime to abuse some sticky spots for sunshine week :^)

send .dem pls ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Just some stuff I've found so far:

* Broken visleaf on mid
* Weird bump issue in corner of second
* Abuse of that corner for no fall damage ever
* The kinds of absurdly long jumps with no fall damage that are possible by abusing this
* Invisible wall in the sky preventing medium-height jumps from second to mid (stickies actually bounce off of this, it's not just a player wall, leading me to believe it's a bug rather than a feature)

Here's an album of quirky sticky trap spots. I believe some are bugs and need to be fixed, but some are more of design issues rather than bugs - for example, really thick brush next to steps.

Holy hell, the last time I looked at Sunshine was rc1a because that was the last time I casted.

Looking at it now... I really need to fire this up in SFM, it's just a beautiful map.

TurinDotA technically was around for 3 years longer than tf2 but it wasn't really an esport for the first few years, it was mostly just a mod that some people ran.

This is true. So let's say the DotA comp scene started around 2005. It still had a good 6 year run before Dota 2 hit beta, and 8 years until Dota 2 was released. So I'd say it's been around a little longer than TF2 but not by much, and it's dead now.

KanecoWith a scene as active as tf2 I can only think of quake but even then, quake live can be considered a different game, and it was released after tf2 iirc. Maybe W: Enemy Territory? But the scene is pretty much dead.

I think the only thing big enough that wasn't CSS since it just came after 1.6 and leeched the scene from it might be DotA, which stayed around from 2003 until Dota 2's release in 2013 (2011 if you count beta). That's a good 10 years I guess, so I guess that's longer than TF2, but it's dead now and if TF2 stays alive a couple more years it'll surpass it.