The Multiplay Insomnia Gaming Festival in Telford, England is UK's biggest LAN tournament, and unquestionably one of the highest profile TF2 competitions in the world. One thing it didn't have until recently, though, was any American representation. E-sports broadcaster eXtv has been spearheading a fundraiser to get our boys in the fight, and the TF2 community has responded, donating the money for airfare, PCs, and accommodations to get America's top TF2 players to the 6v6 tournament.

We couldn't be happier to hear this, firstly because it once again proves that TF2's got the most generous community in gaming history, and secondly because U! S! A! U! S! A! Actually, there might be some Canadians on the team. Close! E! Nough! Close! E! Nough!

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• Fixed matchmaking sending players to out-of-date servers
• Fixed the server browser showing an incorrect player count in MvM games
• Fixed a crash that could occur on map change if another player was being healed by the dispenser or payload cart
• Fixed a rare server crash when firing hitscan weapons
• Fixed MvM intro video not playing on some Macs
• Fixed the sound precache string table being nearly full in non-MvM games
  • This was causing the "error writing string table baseline" and "failed reading message net_SetConVar" errors

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Fixed a bug where rejected players could leave a "ghost" player that takes up a slot on the server browser

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed tf_mm_strict to work as documented

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Updated client rate value to default to 30000 to improve network performance for most players
  • Rate was previously set by Steam’s Internet connection speed setting
• Updated client rate value to be stored in the config.cfg file

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed a crash caused by a string table overflow
• Fixed a client crash related to the freeze panel
• Fixed a client crash related to ragdolls
• Fixed a client crash related to the Mann vs. Machine upgrade panel
• Fixed a client crash related to Mann vs. Machine stats
• Fixed a crash related to server plug-ins spawning a Mann vs. Machine Tank before the game is ready
• Updated the dedicated server to exit when attempting to start a Mann vs. Machine map with less than 32 maxplayers
• Fixed mp_timelimit causing Mann vs. Machine mode to not reset properly when the defenders lose
• Fixed the Mann vs. Machine wave loss/victory dialog buttons not being clickable sometimes
• Fixed the Mann vs. Machine victory dialog getting stuck on the screen
• Fixed the Mann vs. Machine wave summary dialog showing up at the beginning of the first wave
• Fixed seeing incorrect upgrades in the Mann vs. Machine upgrade panel
• Updated upgrade icons to remove numbers
• Fixed Sentry Busters picking disposable buildings as valid targets
• Fixed an instance of the Sentry Buster sound looping endlessly
• Updated the backpack image for Archimedes to fix an alpha channel problem
• Updated the colors for The Battery Bandolier
• Fixed the disconnect reason not being localized properly for Mann vs. Machine mode
• Fixed player glow colors not based on player health in some community mods outside of Mann vs. Machine mode
• Removed console spew related to missing movement warnings
• Updated the matchmaking ConVar tf_mm_strict
  • A value of 2 will hide the server from the server browser but will still allow direct connections
• Updated Mvm_Mannworks
  • Adjusted clipping on left side drop down where bots may become stuck
  • Fixed lighting seam near base
  • Fixed vphysics prop error in console
  • Minor clipping pass on areas players may become hung up on

If you watched last night’s GT.TV special about Valve, you already know that we’re holding the second annual Saxxy Awards this fall. What you don’t know is that we’ve decided to make the Saxxy’s a lot more like an illegal underground martial-arts bloodsport. That’s right: This year there are no rules. There are, however, a whole bunch of brutal laws, traditions, commandments and decrees, plus some rules, which we’ve assembled in a handy bullet-pointed list on the official Saxxy website. Kumite!

Interesting math fact: If you added up every Steam Screenshot, every YouTube clip linked from a Steam account, and every Workshop item you guys have created together, you'd have over 89,000,000 pieces of community-generated content. Wow, is that a big number. And since we take the time to print out every TF2 screenshot, transfer every TF2 video to DVD, and lovingly whittle every TF2 item you design out of soap, the TF2 offices are getting a little cluttered. A load-bearing picture stack in the screenshot district toppled over last week, and the fire department suggested we create some sort of central online hub for this stuff before somebody died.

Introducing the TF2 Game Hub, a central repository of community-created and official content, as rated by you, the Steam users—game-centric discussions, workshop items, screenshots, videos, news. It's all here, under a single virtual roof.

And this is just the first step. We plan to have a hub for every game on Steam—click here to find out more about the new Steam Community. We're sending out an invite-only beta for the Community today, but the TF2 hub's outside the beta and visible to everyone, so feel welcome to drop by and check out some of the new features.

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

• Brought in line with shared engine changes

Team Fortress 2

• Added Mann vs. Machine
• Added Archimedes
• Added The Soldier's Stogie
• Added The Robro 3000
• Updated The Helmet Without a Home to be paintable
• Fixed some clipping issues with The Salty Dog
• Removed player penetration from The Pomson 6000 and boosted the damage to compensate

All right, men! This is it! Gray Mann's robot army is HERE! The Mann vs. Machine war has begun!

The robots are at our doorstep, men, and trust me – they are not going to be asking for a cup of sugar. No! These monsters are going to break down our doors, take our sugar, and sprinkle it on our graves!

While you sassy little sweet peas are chewing on that, strap on your book-goggles and prepare to learn about Mann Up Mode! And loot and achievements! And a new map designed by ME! Hup hup hup! Eyes left! Eyes right! Eyes left! Eyes right! Now you are READING, puddin' cups!

Have you seen the movie Alien? Remember how tough that alien was? Well, imagine if there was a version of Alien but with like hundreds of aliens. One: That would be a great movie that we now own the idea for. Two: The impossible odds of that situation pretty accurately describe the trouble you’re in for when that carrier opens on Wednesday and Gray Mann’s robot army pours out. Luckily, we solved the enormous plot hole that would have plagued our currently-in-production Alien sequel by offering MvM’s plucky heroes a whole mess of deadly upgrades for their weapons, items and abilities, which you can read about here.

We’re also unveiling a new museum-themed map called Coal Town. It features many informative placards about the fascinating details of life in a turn-of-the-century mining community, which you can read when you’re lying on the ground holding your own guts in while a robot stomps on your neck.

This is Saxton. Hale! And that legion business in the title was a Bible quote to let you know how serious this all is: Bible serious. So listen up, mercs. Some puny cowards built an army of robots to fight his fights for him. I don't know if robots have human emotions, but if not, they’re doing a Saxxy-worthy impression of them, because they look mad. Also, Reddy tells me they’re heading straight at Mann Co.