Telefrag

“

I told ya don't touch that darn thing. Click to listen — The Engineer

”

Telefrag kill icon

A Telefrag is a type of death that occurs to a player while standing on or near an Engineer's Teleporter exit as an enemy player uses the teleporter entrance. The player standing on the exit dies and the teleport completes successfully. Telefrags likely exist to discourage players from spawn camping near Teleporters, and to stop players being stuck together. It is not possible to telefrag allies unless friendly fire is enabled.

Telefrags are indicated with the environmental death/suicide kill icon, with the person teleporting as the last person who did significant damage. A telefrag is worth one point to the Engineer and adds one to the victim's death count.

Trivia

• A disguised Spy can use an enemy Teleporter to telefrag enemies. A particularly devious strategy involves sapping an Engineer's Teleporter entrance, then standing on it. If the Engineer is careless and stands atop his exit while knocking off the Electro Sapper, the Spy will instantly teleport the moment the Electro Sapper is removed, telefragging the Engineer, and allowing the Spy to sap his remaining gear at his leisure.
• Similarly, Engineers can place their Teleporters at chokepoints and telefrag enemies as they walk over.
• It is possible to be telefragged while under the effects of an ÜberCharge‎.
• Telefragging an enemy as the Soldier will result in a full rage bar for the Buff Banner. This is possibly because, due to game mechanics, the teleporting player is the one that does the damage to kill the telefragged player, which is approximately 1000 damage.
• Previously, telefrags were credited to the Teleporter Exit, not to the player teleporting, meaning one could have had a killcam saying "You have been killed by the Teleporter Exit of X".
• The act of telefraging was originaly created in the arcade game Gauntlet, dating back to the year 1985.