WAR! Update

“

In my experience, Miss Pauling, nothing kills a friendship faster than a healthy competition.

— The Administrator

”

The WAR! Update was a class update for the Demoman and the Soldier. It was the second multi-class patch, and was the sixth major content pack released. The update was first announced on December 9, 2009, and was released on December 17, 2009.

The WAR! Update differed from previous updates by including two competitions, operating inside and outside of the game. The first was announced at the start of the update; a kill tracker appeared in the HUD of anybody playing as a Demoman or Soldier, with the counter increasing each time they (as a Soldier) killed an enemy Demoman, or they (as a Demoman) killed an enemy Soldier. The personal totals of each player were added to a mass tally, and with each day of the update a running total score for each side was given on the update page. The Soldier won with 6,406,065 total kills to the Demoman's 6,372,979, granting the Soldier the prize of an extra unlockable weapon, the Gunboats.

The second competition was the Propaganda Contest. Users designed propaganda posters for the side of their choice, supporting either the BLU Soldier or RED Demoman. The posters were then submitted to Valve to be judged through the Propaganda Contest website. The three leading prizes were later revealed to be a special Towering Pillar of Hats, Noble Amassment of Hats, and Modest Pile of Hat (for first, second, and third place, respectively), with unique models and names, distinguishable from the normal models by the attached orange prize ribbons.

Announcements

The WAR! Update page officially began on December 10th, 2009, as announced on the TF2 Official Blog post "The War Update". The update was released on December 17th.

Day 1: The WAR! Update began to track kills.
Day 2: The Propaganda Contest was announced.
Day 3: Crafting was announced.
Day 4: The Eyelander and Chargin' Targe were announced.
Day 5: The Direct Hit were announced.
Day 6: The Equalizer, Buff Banner, and Scottish Resistance are all announced. The titles and icons for the Demoman achievements and Soldier achievements are also revealed.
Day 7: The Soldier is announced to be the winner of the kill contest, receiving the Gunboats as a prize. The Control Point map Gorge and Capture the Flag map Double Cross are also announced. The achievements which were teased the previous day have their descriptions revealed.

Additions

Weapons

Class	Icon	Name
Demoman		Scottish Resistance
		Chargin' Targe
		Eyelander
Soldier		Direct Hit
		Buff Banner
		Equalizer
		Gunboats

Maps

Game Mode	Image	Map Name	File Name
Control Point		Gorge	cp_gorge
Capture the Flag		Double Cross	ctf_doublecross

Pre-announcement references

New Administrator Voice Files

Teasing of the WAR! update began with the December 7, 2009 Patch, when new Administrator voice files were added to the game, which were randomly switched out with the normal voice files during gameplay if a Demoman and Soldier were being played by opposing teams. She would voice her disappointment and hint at the upcoming conflict, stating that her trust had been "betrayed" and that "friendship will not be tolerated".

WAR! Comic

The first official hint came on December 9th 2009, with the blog post "Attention Employees...". It contained a single sentence of "Friendship ends in one day." and a link to a comic where Miss Pauling revealed to the Administrator that the BLU Soldier and RED Demoman had become friends. Fearing that the two would eventually find out they both work for the same person, the Administrator told Miss Pauling to contact Saxton Hale and order some new custom weapons as she was going to make the friends compete with each other.

This comic continued over the next few days alongside the update itself. It continued on to show Saxton Hale being contacted and shipping out the new weapons, and the Demoman and Soldier being tricked into competing with each other.