The third season of RGL.gg is about to begin! This Pick/Ban Prolander league is broken down into multiple divisions. Paid divisions with a total prize pool of $4,000 for experienced players and completely free divisions for players who want to try out this dynamic, fun and fresh competitive format.

RGL.gg is currently only a North American league, but plans to expand to Europe in the next couple months. New team registration ends on February 20th. Players who are looking for a team can post in the LFT section of the RGL website. Register today at the RGL.gg website.

The Jungle Inferno Campaign will be officially coming to an end this Sunday, February 11th. But don't despair -- Jungle Inferno contracts will continue to be available for existing pass owners. The ConTracker will continue tracking your progress, and you'll still have access to the exclusive items in the Mercenary Park Gift Shop. You'll have to say goodbye to the Jungle Inferno main menu theme and the Special Events matchmaking category, but you'll still be able to play all of the Jungle Inferno maps. Each map will move to the appropriate matchmaking group based on its game mode. Now get back to taunting complete strangers!

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Fixed not being able to apply the Civilian Stat Clock to Civilian-grade weapons

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Fixed Festivize Woodsy Widowmaker not drawing the lights
• Fixed the main menu being muted if clients disconnect from a server while in freezecam
• Updated festivized items to use "Festivized" in the name instead of "Festive"
  • This will help disinguish the original Festive weapons from weapons that have had a Festivizer applied to them
• Updated Strangifiers so they can no longer be applied to War Paint items
• Updated the equip_regions for the The Koala Compact, Pocket Saxton, and Pocket Yeti

Missed note from the Smissmas update:

• Australium weapons can now be Festivized

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Fixed missing War Paint icons in the Steam Community Market and Steam Inventory
• Fixed The Hot Hand not displaying the item level in its description
• Fixed Steam Workshop file uploads applying filesize limits before compression, rather than after
• Updated materials for the Dovetailed War Paint to fix a problem with the alpha channel
• Updated materials/models for The Snowmann and The Nuke
• Updated the localization files

Prepare yourself, the UGC League Winter Season is about to start! Come join the thousands of players that played last season for some competitive TF2 action! The first week of matches starts January 19th for 4v4, January 22nd for Highlander and January 24th for 6v6.

UGC has divisions across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand. Players from any of these regions are encouraged to sign-up and join the fun! (Remember, February 1st is the last day that teams can sign up.) Visit the UGC website for more information.

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Fixed missing sounds for the new taunts
• Fixed a bug that prevented already-Festivized weapons from drawing their lights
• Updated materials/model for the Blast Blocker
• Updated the Heals for Reals medals so they can be painted

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

Happy Smissmas 2017!
• All players who play TF2 during the event will receive a Stuffed Stocking as a gift! Stockings contain goodies for good little Mercenaries.
  • Event runs through January 10th, 2018
• Added the Winter 2017 War Paint Case
  • Contains 15 new community-contributed War Paints
  • Randomly dropped for players who have activated a Jungle Inferno Campaign Pass
• Added the Winter 2017 Cosmetic Case
  • Contains 20 new community-contributed items
  • The Festivizer can be found as a bonus drop when opening the case
• Added 6 new community-contributed taunts to the Mann Co. Store
  • Taunt: The Skating Scorcher
  • Taunt: The Bunnyhopper
  • Taunt: Runner's Rhythm
  • Taunt: Luxury Lounge
  • Taunt: Surgeon's Squeezebox
  • Taunt: The Trackman's Touchdown
• Expanded the list of weapons that can be Festivized!
  • Ubersaw, Dragon's Fury, Amputator, Air Strike, Back Scratcher, Scotsman's Skullcutter, Bazaar Bargain, Black Box, Claidheamh Mòr, Crusader's Crossbow, Degreaser, Loose Cannon, Persian Persuader, Detonator, Brass Beast, Holy Mackerel, Loch-n-Load, Powerjack, Iron Bomber, Reserve Shooter, Disciplinary Action, Family Business, Shahanshah, Scorch Shot, Shortstop, Soda Popper, Rescue Ranger, Tomislav, Panic Attack, Winger
• Mann Co. Store winter sale!
General
• War Paints can now be used for Mann Co. Trade-Ups
• Fixed a rendering issue with the Misty Skull unusual effect
• Fixed a case where it was possible to use the Thermal Thruster twice in one launch
• Fixed the inspect animation for the Shortstop
• Fixed the Festive Sandvich not showing the bite mark when eaten
• Increased the maximum number of backpack slots to 3000 (from 2500)
• Added the UGC Highlander Season 21, Highlander Season 22, Highlander Season 23, 6v6 Season 23, 6v6 Season 24, 6v6 Season 25, 4v4 Season 10, 4v4 Season 11, and 4v4 Season 12 tournament medals
• Added Ready Steady Pan Season 3 tournament medals
• Updated cp_mercenarypark
  • Added a forward spawn for BLU when attacking the final control point
  • Added a connecting stairwell to the mid-structure of the final control point
  • Fixed area portal rendering issues between the first and second control points
• Updated pd_watergate
  • Respawn times of the teams will change dynamically based on the difference in scores. This should help balance any extreme differences in the team skills/scores.
    • <50% difference in scores: 8s for leading team, 4s for trailing
    • >50% difference in scores: 12s for leading team, 0s for trailing
    • Equal scores: 6s for each team
  • Relocated the player beer pickup counter on the HUD to the lower left, but made it slightly larger
  • Updated the soundscape to have more alien-y sounds in the main areas
  • Adjusted detail in the center and spawn rooms
  • Adjusted clipping around the map

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Fixed a client crash related to viewing notifications
• Fixed being able to interrupt taunts using the ConTracker commands
• Fixed a bug with the Medi Gun not staying attached to players
• Fixed a bug with the Backburner using its owner's angle to determine whether the attack is behind the victim
• Fixed a rendering issue with the Spectral Swirl unusual effect
• Fixed not being able to fire the Dragon's Fury in some areas (e.g. the control point on Nucleus)
• Fixed not being able to light Huntsman arrows with the Dragon's Fury
• Fixed Dragon's Fury projectiles not fizzling when hitting water
• Fixed not being able to detonate stickybombs when switching to melee with secondary attack held down
• Fixed the charge sound for the Stickybomb Launcher not stopping if the player switches weapons while charging
• Fixed Quick-Fix Medics not properly following/mirroring the Pyro after launching with the Thermal Thruster
• Fixed being able to shoot flares through objects like setup gates
• Fixed the Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol always giving 7hp per-hit
• Fixed the Winger not counting towards the Scout achievement "Gun Down"
• Fixed the Festive Sandvich not counting towards the Heavy achievement "Konspicuous Konsumption"
• Fixed the Rescue Ranger not counting towards the Engineer achievement "Texas Two-Step"
• Fixed the Genuine version of the Flying Guillotine having no taunt
• Updated the Vita-Saw so victims spawn random internal organs on hit
• Updated the Atomizer damage penalty vs players to -15% (from -25%)
• Updated the party system so invites are shown to all party members
• Updated the Thermal Thruster stomp damage on other players to be 3x the base fall damage - not the reduced fall damage of the owner
• Updated the "With Friends Like these..." achievement to check for five friends instead of seven
• Added the Heals for Reals 2017 community medals
• Added the "Philanthropist's Indulgence" community medal for Random Acts of TF2
• Added the "Spectral Snowflake" community medal for the Nightmare Before Smissmas 2017 community showcase

The Portland Burnsiders have teamed up with KritzKast and USAopoly to create a weekend of entertainment in benefit of AFSP!

The live stream starts at 9:00am PST Saturday, December 9th, on Twitch. Donations are already open via Scrap.tf and Just Giving. Donations of $10 or more receive the 'Heals for Reals' in-game medal. Copies of TF2 Monopoly® and Gravel and Gargoyles puzzles all signed by the Valve TF2 dev team are also up for grabs during the weekend.

Image by sanatorium, logo by Teleportato, medal by NeoDement