Wiki Supply Crate

“

Click to listen

— The Scout

”

Wiki Supply Crates are tool items obtainable only through the item drop system.
They are shown as open-style wooden shipping crates, wrapped in chains held with a large padlock.
Wiki Supply Crates can be opened with the use of a Wiki Supply Crate Key. This crate will drop to all players whose names will be on the Participant List (you should add yourself to get the Wiki Supply Crate). Also, all participants will receive a Wiki Supply Crate Key... after a while.

When a crate is opened, a five second timer ticks down, alongside a sound effect of chains jangling and wood creaking. Once opened to the tune of a cheering crowd - identical to when an achievement is unlocked - the player will receive one of a set of items which are listed in the crate's description and are dependent on its series. This item is announced to the server in a similar format to regular dropped items. The crate and key are removed from the player's inventory and replaced with the uncrated item.

While Wiki Supply Crates are obtained through the item drop system, they do not add to the total cap of items a player can obtain each week.^[1]

Though the notion and concept of a crate suggests that the contents should be predetermined, Robin Walker has confirmed the mechanics are such that item drop is determined at the point of opening the crate; moreover, items are not mapped to crates and thus there is no distinction to be made between two crates of identical series.

Trivia

Although Valve modeled the padlocked chain for the icon, the padlocked box can't be found in the game files; its textures, however, can be found. The crate itself uses a model that appears to be the same as models/props_hydro/barrel_crate_half.mdl.
In the Mac Update trailer, the RED Soldier can be seen sifting through a crate of hats, hinting at the existence of crates before the Mann-Conomy Update.
Crate series are usually launched and discontinued in groups of three, with the exception of #1, #2, #6 (Xmas promotion), #22 (Summer promotion), #29, #30, and #31.