Team Fortress 2

Fandom
Name:	Team Fortress 2
Abbreviation(s):	TF2
Creator:	Valve
Date(s):	October 10, 2007 - Present
Medium:	Video Game
Country of Origin:	United States
External Links:	http://www.teamfortress.com/
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Team Fortress 2 is a 2007 first-person shooter created by Valve as a sequel to the Quake mod Team Fortress. It was released on the same day as Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Portal as part of The Orange Box. The game became free to play in 2011.

Team Fortress 2 has had a large, active fandom since its debut in 2007. In Tumblr Fandometrics' Year in Review 2013, it was ranked 9th for most reblogged Video Game fandom that year. Team Fortress 2 has a placement on every Tumblr Fandometrics' Year in Review since.

General Information

Team Fortress 2 has 9 playable characters, (called mercenaries/mercs,) as well as supporting characters the Administrator, Saxton Hale and Miss Pauling.

The most popular ship between the mercenaries is Heavy/Medic (Red Oktoberfest). Other popular ships are Engineer/Soldier (Helmet Party) and Sniper/Spy (Bloody Suit). Remaining well-known ships are Demoman/Soldier (Boots n' Bombs), Engineer/Spy (Napoleon Complex), Scout/Sniper (Speeding Bullet), Medic/Sniper (Urine Sample) and Spy&Scout. Scout/Miss Pauling (Caught Looking) is also common.

Medic is popular for self-shipping works. Scout, Sniper, Spy, Medic and Miss Pauling have all been called Tumblr Sexymen.

Early Fandom

By anon on TF2chan

Team Fortress 2 has had a fandom from day one. Most Fannish activity from the early years were on online forums and imageboards, such as 4chan's /v/, Oekaki, plus4chan, YouTube, and Valve's own Steamcommunity forum. Many of these fans came from Half-Life fandom, another Valve game. Garry's Mod was used to help create fanvideos for the game (it still is,) and mods for the game itself were plentiful (it still is.) TF2 received regular content updates, which added to the game's gameplay, lore and characterization of its playable characters (is it still? This is debatable.)

TF2chan was an anonymous imageboard created in 2009 which allowed fanworks of almost all kinds to be shared to a larger community of TF2 fans accustomed to Slash and shipping culture. TF2chan was where the fanfiction Respawn of the Dead by CatBountry was first shared and Tentaspy was first conceived, along with Merscout. It also had a section for Left 4 Dead.

Although TF2chan was anonymous, "namefagging" was common and accepted. Many frequent fanartist users could be recognized based off their art styles alone in their posts. TF2chan had a "no anime and furries" policy as a gatekeeping measure. Original characters and self-inserts were also frowned upon. No minors were allowed on the forum.

In 2012-2014, after years of use, the forum became deserted following a larger migration of its user base over to Tumblr. Much of its fanfictions have since been re-hosted on Archive of Our Own. In following years, reactions to the forum both by its user base and newer TF2 fans have been mixed. Many of its admins, particularly CatBountry, are infamous in some circles. The website goes on and offline, and it is currently unstable for its use as a forum.

im still obsessed with tf2chan by the way. it's completely dead and fossilized and the fossils are disintegrating because some encoding changed and now half the punctuation in all the fanfic has been corrupted into euro signs and trademark symbols. but i'm still obsessed with Fandom 4Chan For Girls.

https://www.tumblr.com/magnetictapedatastorage/725214709249425408/im-still-obsessed-with-tf2chan-by-the-way-its

trr3rr asked:

I learned more about how to enjoy and develope my own creative writing and art from tf2chan than I did from art school and 2 English A level courses. TF2 really is the game of all time.

spengs replied:

I've been playing TF2 again recently and I'm so glad it's remained this constant good in my life lol... God tf2chan was Something back in the day... It certainly Affected me fundamentally. Some of the most fucked up and evil fics on there but also some of the most beautiful and masterful ones I've ever read...

#do you remember the one about a dystopian au where theres like a scout breeding farm#or the one where engineer builds scout a sex robot#but God there was also one where sniper and engineer are trapped in a dimension or something trying to figure out how to get home#and as the story progresses sniper realises hed rather be doomed with engie than let him go back to his wife and be alone in the real world#and in the end he literally watches himself unravel like thread#im not doing it justice but it Changed Me#there was also one called It Could Be Worse that lives in my mind at all times and creeps into my forethoughts on quiet summer evenings#but i digress#tf2 really is the game of all time

https://www.tumblr.com/spengs/665599900786081792/i-learned-more-about-how-to-enjoy-and-develope-my

Another reason why TF2chan was abandoned was due to tension within the board itself.

From what I’ve observed, the chan seemed to go seriously downhill once the “workshop” board was added. Until then, people with varying degrees of artistic talent all showed up in the same places and got the same amount of critique when needed. Bad fanart showed up in the same places as good fanart, which led people being a lot less hesitant about telling people to improve and how, because people wanted to see quality stuff, not bad. It was catering to a single audience who had a (really gay) appreciation for a video game where people go crazy with weapons, wear hats, and die repeatedly. Everyone was a part of the horrifying clusterfuck that was TF2Chan. Instead of being put in a “special” little section of their own, they got called on their bullshit, along with demands to improve. Meanwhile, everyone else either got bored and left due to the sudden, yet expected slowness on the regular boards or got inflated egos. By dumping the ‘bad’ artists into a board of their own in order to make the regular fanart boards look ‘better’, you made the problem 100x worse.

You guys keep complaining about how the site has become a huge hugbox, when you are the very people who created said hugbox (workshop). YOU MONSTERS.

https://nevvyland.tumblr.com/post/21401405371/catbountry-fuckyeahappo-drtanner-this-is

One notable fanartist who was a TF2chan regular, Makani, had her design of the Administrator canonized. She was later hired by Valve.

CatBountry was also hired by Valve to write the non-canon official comic, Death of a Salesbot, though this appears to have been a one-time gig.

Later Fandom

TF2 fandom now accepts what was previously banished content on TF2chan with open arms. Source Filmmaker, a free-as-in-beer 3D animation program created by Valve to animate the Meet the Team advertisements for TF2, has been used to create a thriving fanvideo community since its release to the public in 2012. Portmanteau ship names have also been popular in recent years, replacing older ones that were created on anonymous forums.

Ship hate is somewhat common, as with most fandoms. This may be over the age of the characters, (Scout is 25 or under while Sniper is said to be ~30,) or the idea that Heavy/Medic is so implied that it should be counted as canon.

🔞Bel @Hazylulu said:

Scout tryna spoil his medic rotten

Pootis Sandvich @_PootisSandvich replied:

Because they're desperate. Even after Medic's VA yelled into the crowd that he only loves Heavy, they still have to draw disgusting shit like that.

🌻⚛️ Salty ⚛️🌻 | CEO of 2012 Apriltello @SaltySpitt00n replied:

robin isnt medic irl nor does he dictate the canon, literally stop talking 💀(also hilarious seeing you call bel desperate when your partner here has been @'ing robin daily)

Pootis Sandvich @_PootisSandvich replied:

"Heavymedic is not canon" says the person that ships two characters that barely interact with each other, have a huge age difference and don't even like each other.

You're just mad because Medic's VA doesn't care about your nonsense ship. I would probably be salty too.

https://twitter.com/_PootisSandvich/status/1569517775462227969

Anonymous asked:

I hate tf2twt, like once a month it implodes because of some shit like 'mediscout is ok' or 'I hc my spy as transmasc, not transfem' or smth else stupid

aprofessionalwithoutstandards replied:

To be honest with u all that same shit happens here too do u see the posts I gotta make sometimes. Fandom Twitter and Tumblr are two sides of the same coin the only differences are we get unlimited character count and they get to post boobs images

#like we have is SWORDVAN okay discourse on here. bc people just decided demo is old even tho a) he doesn't have a confirmed exact age#and b) sniper is like thirty he can fuck whoever he wants#ask#anon#tf2

somnolent-snufkin replied:

gotta be honest i really wish we didn't fight over ships like it's fucking 2013

except when we're fighting against spyscout. that shit ain't acceptable in any form and it seems like most of the community agrees with that sentiment

https://www.tumblr.com/aprofessionalwithoutstandards/695314990453932032/i-hate-tf2twt-like-once-a-month-it-implodes

Example/Notable Fanac

Tentaspy and Merscout is a popular SpyScout AU of TF2 that was created out of a crossover with Beauty and the Beast on TF2chan. It has produced a considerable amount of fanac, though these fanacs are rarely also SpyScout. Tentaspy is a wrangled tag on AO3. Merscout never got as big.

Freak Fortress is another popular AU that was created from the Garry's Mod side of the fandom in 2008. Christian Brutal Sniper and Christian Pure Spy have produced a considerable amount of fanac on Tumblr. It has its own wiki.

Fancommunities/Fanevents

• TF2chan
  • TF2chan is mentioned in PC Gamer UK.
• tf2 ship swag, a ship bracket for TF2 hosted on Tumblr.
• asktf2chanmods, a Tumblr once ran by TF2chan mods. Placed here due to its relevance in archiving the history of TF2chan.
• Miss-Pauling-FC, a community on DeviantArt.
• FemFortressClub, a community for Genderbent AU fanworks on DeviantArt.

Fanart

• Spy could be knocked over by a light breeze by heckoffmate, fanart for Heavy/Spy (Spoovy)
• I've been thinking of this for a while by zzoupz, Freak Fortress and Good Omens crossover fanart.
• Pâtisserie en Pointé by uberchain, KichiART and Logan McCloud, Bakery AU. Official models, custom assets and Photoshop were used to make the fanart. Hosted on a forum dedicated to TF2 3D asset sharing and discussion.

Fanblogs

• Fuck No, Bad Team Fortress 2 Fanfiction., a Fuck No blog.

Fancollections

• Nonbinary and/or Gender-Nuetral Pyro TF2, a collection on AO3 for fanworks of Pyro portraying them as Nonbinary or otherwise genderless. It has over 250 works as of September 2023.

Fanfiction

• Respawn of the Dead by Catbountry, a completed English longfic where the mercenaries have to survive against zombies in a Zombie AU. It has produced a considerable amount of fanac.
• Breed by Propernicethat, an incomplete English fanfiction which features a Scout "breeding farm." It has the most kudos out of any work in Archive of Our Own's Team Fortress 2 tag as of September 2023, and has had that distinction since 2015.
• The Nucleus Incident by Eximplode, Superpower AU hosted on Tumblr.
• TF2 fanfiction Bingo from 2012 by shameglobe, lists many commonly-brought up tropes in TF2 fanfiction. Another Tumblr user "completed" the board using example fanfictions.
• Surrogate by CatBountry, an English Red Oktoberfest mpreg fic. Mentioned on TVTropes.
• This Is Where We Are Now PurpleCompromise, an English work-in-progress Medic/Female!Reader fanfiction. It has the second most kudos out of any work in the TF2 tag on AO3.

Fanfilms

• EMESIS BLUE [SFM] by Fortress Films, a 01:48:34 film made in Source Filmmaker using TF2 models to create an original story. It has produced a considerable amount of Fanac everywhere fandom lives.

Fanvideos

• "Team Fabulous 2" by the late kitty0706, A machinima portraying exaggerated shenanigans during a game match. As of September 2023, the video has over 29 million views.
• "Team Fabulous 2 Reanimated", a multi animator project reanimation of "Team Fabulous 2" made to honor kitty0706 and to raise funds for leukemia research.

Fanmusic

• Songs from the Dustbowl, an album by Phemiec. Phemiec has also done fanmusic for Homestuck.

Fanpodcasts

• REDCAST, a TF2 podcast

Meta

• TF2 Rare Pair Survey Results
• origins of tentaspy by tempural, an interview with Lakidaa, a former regular on TF2chan, about the origins of Tentaspy.
• Team Fortress 2 Ship Analysis by hankwritten. Hankwritten may be considered a BNF in TF2 fandom.
• The "Heavy-Medic Duo" by bleachandablowtorch, a collection of all Red Oktoberfest-adjacent material released by Valve that is "even remotely canonical, official, or in any way important." In English. Ship manifesto.

Gallery

• 

  Fanart of Merscout by Dywaso, aka do-you-want-a-second-opinion.