 Good evening! Have you heard the exciting new news? Team Fortress 2 has a new 10th class, at least that's what people on the internet are saying. That's not exactly true though. What is true is that the game's new Summer 2023 update has come, bringing the game to the highest player count it's ever seen, and with that a lot of confused noobs. Now, that's not to shame anybody. I for one am happy to see this game continuing to grow and sprout new players who try to shoot through glass or make use of ambient fire extinguishers. And that's not a joke. But this influx of new players combined with the fact that the new update was not only the biggest the game had seen in seven years, but was also kind of a train wreck is leading to a lot of confusion in the community that I would like to try to help settle in this video. If you're someone who's played the game for a long time, chances are you already have a decent idea of what's going on with this commotion about a new update and a new character. But if you don't, or if you just want to be 100% sure you're up to speed, I'm here to give you a rundown on who this weird buff shirtless guy is, why he was suddenly added after nearly seven years of the game receiving no major updates, and why it's such a big deal that everyone online is freaking out over. I'm also going to talk a little bit about what this update means for the future of TF2, because it's kind of a big deal. So let's start from the top. The headliner. This summer update has added, for the first time in the game's 15 year lifespan, a new playable character, which is kind of crazy and has led to a lot of jokes and talk online about how Valve has finally added a 10th class. However, I find all that to be a bit misleading, since if you boot up TF2 and Q into a game, you're not even going to run into this guy. In my opinion, calling him a class at all is kind of a stretch. He's not a selectable mercenary in regular matches, and in fact, right now the levels he is supposed to appear in have been temporarily removed from the game's map pool because they're broken. But as soon as the multi-billion dollar company figures out how to put the smiley face puzzle back together, those matches will be re-enabled, at which point everyone will be able to queue for a match to play around with this guy, which is the main reason everyone is drooling over this update. Oh, and also because they're gay. But who is this new character? Well, you probably have already figured this out, but he's a guy named Saxton Hale, and he was introduced as part of a very special new game mode called VSH. Very silly hotdog, I think it stands for. Or maybe versus Saxton Hale, I don't actually know. Anyways, the entire game mode is based around teaming up to try to kill Saxton since he's super strong and powerful. It's sort of like Juggernaut from Halo if you've ever played that. And the reason this game mode and character being added is such a big deal to so many people is because it has a very long history in the game's community. The fact that Valve was willing to officially induct it also potentially marks the start of a more active era in the game's life, which personally makes me very excited. Almost as excited as I am to interrupt this lovely video to tell you that it's being brought to you by none other than Rage Shadow Legends, the fantasy RPG game with over 700 unique champions and counting. With 15 different unique factions, it's safe to say there's something here for everyone. I think the Sacred Order faction is pretty cool. 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The Sniper vs. Spy update released with a promotional page including a list of weapons it added, and then at the bottom there was an advertisement for the weapon company that supplies the Mercs, Manco, and in it, a picture of this fella. With his weird shorts, long legs, crocodile hunter hat, and bare chest, his appearance was striking and very memorable. This page gave a name and face to who we now know as the President and CEO of Manco, Saxton Hale, an anagram of hot anal sex. Whether that's intentional or not, I'm not really sure to be honest. Saxton also appeared in the update's Gerati comic, loudly proclaiming himself as its inventor, basically implying he was the first guy in the entire world to ever pee in a jar and throw it at someone. So I guess this guy is just filthy. He's also Australian, which is the reason he's so brawlic and huge. If you didn't know, Team Fortress was originally created by Australian people, so in the game's story, everyone from Australia is a super macho man thanks to a metal-called Australian that basically gives them superpowers. That's an actual plot point. Moving on, Saxton proved to be a hit among the game's die-hard fans. So Valve brought him back as a main character in TF2's official comic series, where we learned about his longtime love interest Maggie, who he used to ruthlessly fistfight Panthers with, as well as his arch nemesis Charles Darling, who Hale hated for wanting to keep animals locked up in zoos when they were so clearly meant to be fist-fought by humans like him instead. The final comic entry was never finished, so we don't really know what was going to come of Saxton's arc or where this plot with Maggie and Charles Darling was going to go, but I did a video covering why it never came out and a supposed leak of it not too long ago if you want to know more about that. Anyway, the love people had for Saxton Hale translated to an undying need in the community to see him in action. This fan rendition of Saxton Hale was one of the first custom TF2 character models ever made, and it was immediately put to a very interesting use. See, Saxton being an all-powerful, super-strong, superhero-type character gave a team of community members an idea. What if there was a game mode where a full team of mercenaries had to try to take him down? Like a big boss fight. It was a really interesting and novel concept, and when someone wrote a plug-in to turn it into a reality, it quickly became probably the most popular TF2 community game mode of all time. I personally have a lot of fond memories on old VSH servers, even if I was never very good at the game mode itself. The 2-4 desk was always my favorite map, even if it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Eventually, other characters began being introduced as bosses, like the fan favorite community abomination, the Vagineer, and the horseless headless horseman from the 2009 Halloween update. And with time, so many boss concepts and designs were piled on that VSH got forked into a separate project called Freak Fortress, which is still around and includes a truly demented assortment of bosses and levels. Right, he's left for dead, Bill? Oh, fuck no! Bill, no! But despite how well-loved and influential Saxton and his game mode were in the game's custom server community, the character himself remained somewhat obscure to the masses for years, since he only ever officially appeared in comics and update pages. However, this would all change with the release of the Jungle Inferno update in 2017. Alongside the Jungle Inferno update came an animated short that gave backstory to its mercenary park level, where we finally saw Saxton in action 8 years after his initial debut, boasting a new model and official voice actor, ripping through yetis and throwing a terrified scout through them as they explode. I can't lie, it was pretty awesome to see this beloved character finally brought to life in an official medium, even if the update itself had a pretty mixed reception. One thing I always found interesting is that the Jungle Inferno short also seemed to tease that Hale would be the announcer on the mercenary park map, which wound up not being the case. I don't know if that was something they ever actually planned, but it does make me think about how interesting it would be to see custom announcer packs in TF2, kinda like what Dota 2 has. Anyways, Jungle Inferno ended up being the last major update TF2 got for a long time. It actually still marks the last time the game received any new balance changes, Valve made maps or new weapons. The community also unfortunately never got their hands on the new official model of Saxton Hale, though someone made a pretty good remake of it that was quickly cycled into most community VSH servers. And with the game falling into disrepair over many many years with no sign of new content coming, it really seemed like this Jungle Inferno short was most likely the end of Saxton's story, which was sad because it really felt like it had only just begun. However, fast forward to 2023, Valve announces a new summer update and asks the community to make content for it. What? The build up to this moment honestly deserves a video of its own, but it turns out that Valve hasn't abandoned TF2 yet, at least not completely. It turns out a team of community members had petitioned Valve to add some new fan made levels that would actually stay in the game's map pool year round. Given how dormant the team behind the game had been for years, few people thought it would amount to anything substantial, but apparently it did. This blog post went out and immediately resulted in the biggest surge of activity the community had seen in years. People began making maps and hats like crazy knowing there was finally a decent opportunity to get non-holiday themed content added into the game. And in the midst of this special opportunity, a small team of modders decided to completely rebuild the classic vs. Saxton hail community game mode from the ground up, using vScript, a scripting language Valve had recently added support for. Once this remake was officially published, it quickly hit the front of the game's workshop. But a lot of people, including myself, thought it was unrealistic that Valve would ever add it. Surely they wouldn't grab a remake of a beloved fan made game mode and abruptly drop it into the game 10 years after its creation with absolutely no hype-cycler prior announcement, right? But lo and behold, 13 years after the character's introduction, Saxton hail and his game mode are officially added to the game through these four v-script powered maps in the summer 2023 update. And on launch, zero of them worked. At the time of me recording this, if you want to play the official new vs. H game mode, you'll have to give it a test run on community servers, because if for some reason it was crashing every time it ran on Valve's official ones, and it's now even been temporarily removed from the matchmaking queue. Here's a quick update. In the two weeks that I spent editing this video, Valve tried to fix vs. H like two or three more times, and it kept just not working. But as of today, it does look like vs. H is officially back and has returned to the matchmaking queue, and I do recommend checking it out. It's actually pretty fun. Personally, I think something as momentous as officially adding a decade old beloved game mode should have definitely been handled a lot more tactfully. As it stands, the official first new game mode added to the game in literally like a decade includes fan voice impressions of the mercenaries in hail, as well as that fan-made remake of his model. That, combined with the fact that the whole mode is currently completely unplayable, is kind of insane. But it's still undeniably cool and exciting that Valve is willing to try stuff like this out. We can only hope that in a future patch they'll bring back the original voice actors for Saxton and the mercenaries to replace these impressions, because even if they're good, there's really no reason Valve should be shipping them when the voice actors are so clearly pining to reprise their roles. The maps themselves are also pretty cool, and some of the most faithful looking ones that the game has seen in a long time. And in general, as much as the role out of Saxton has been botched, it's still a childhood dream come true for this classic fan project to get added to the game officially. However, this whole ordeal does have some interesting implications for the game's future. I'm not really sure if I like the precedent that anyone can create something as giant as a new v-script game mode and get it permanently added to the game's matchmaking queue with little fanfare, especially with some of the incompetence Valve demonstrated with this update's rollout. And the abundance of tweaks this update brought to classic maps like Steel makes me worried as well. This stuff is permanent after all, you're toying with things people have loved for over a decade now. But with the floodgates open, one thing is undeniable. It is an exciting time to be a TF2 fan, the most exciting it's been in over half a decade. If this is your first time experiencing a big TF2 update, I don't want this video to take that joy away from you. But I do think there's plenty to be desired about how this whole thing was handled, and that the story that got us here is kind of fascinating. Anyways, hopefully this video helps catch at least some people up to speed with what's going on with TF2 and why it has a new character in game mode. If not, hopefully it was at least entertaining. Also, before I see a giant wave of sacks and hail memes start popping up, I want to remind everyone that the real coolest character in TF2 is engineer's grandpa Radigan Conniger. This guy is just dope as fuck. That's all. Also, don't forget to download Raid Shadow Legends using my link or QR code to get cool bonuses in the game. Thanks for watching, subscribe for more, and have a nice day.