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---Update #4 has been added!---
New Team Fortress 2 Comic "Blood Brothers" uncovered. Players Notice 17th August as Date on the Front of the Comic, Same Day as GTTV Valve Episode due this Week.
Click here to join the official TF2 Summer ARG group to stay up to date with recent happening.
A recent and mysteriously secret update to the Team Fortress 2 blog has revealed a new section of lore in the TF2 universe, and potentially begins a new ARG possibly leading up to the long hinted "Mann vs Machine" update.
The update page, named "Gray", can be accessed by clicking on the recently added blood spot on the Team Fortress 2 blog homepage. The page itself appears as a worn and weathered document, similar to secret pages seen on the first and second Halloween update pages. The document appears to be the birth certificate of Redmond and Blutarch Mann, owners of RED and BLU team respectively, along with their newly revealed triplet brother, Gray Mann. The bottom of the page mentions how Gray was taken away by an unknown character known as 'The EAGLE', which would explain why Gray hasn't been mentioned in any previous TF2 lore, as he was most likely ignored by his father, Zepheniah Mann - who split his land in half and gave it to his other sons, Redmond and Blutarch. Little else is known about Gray at this time, but the name suggests he may be in charge of the neutral 'Gray Gravel Co' buildings, seen throughout Team Fortress 2 maps.
Worth mentioning is the inclusion of a 'Senator Mitchell Gray' in the recent court hearing over the disappearance of Poopy Joe during the PyroMania Summer ARG. We believe its beyond coincidence for these two names to have been included without some form of connection. Could Gray Mann be the creator of the 'Tobor' robots the community has been hunting for?
We'll keep you posted on any further developments regarding this secret update and the potential start of a new TF2 ARG.
---Update #1---
Today's update, which included the new Kong King king of the hill map, also brought a strange new change in the form of giant mysterious rovers which have appeared on the maps 2fort, Badwater, Granary and Doublecross. Is this connected to the Gray Mann reveal? What, if any, is the connection between these maps? Who knows. What we do know is that last time something arrived suddenly in TF2 maps, it was a set of crashed rockets which later revealed a set of WETA Workshop item packs for multiple classes, time will tell what these strange new arrivals may bring. These rover models have previously been found by users in the Source Filmmaker files a while ago, a long with several models for robot versions of the classes' heads. Could this be related? We'll keep you posted.
---Update #2---
A second blood splat has appeared on the TF2 homepage above the original. This time, it leads to a completed Will of Zepheniah Mann, revealing that the in-game company 'Gray Gravel Co.' is indeed owned by Gray Mann, after Zepheniah left his gravel pits to him in his Will. Important to note is the way he refers to Gray as his "weakling son", showing that Gray may be jealous of his brothers' wealth after being disowned by his father shortly after birth. You can stay up to date with updates as they happen on our friend xPaw's own website, in which he lists the changing details regarding this ARG.Players have also found that using the High-five taunt between two players who both have the Barely-Melted Capacitor equipped as a miscellaneous item will reveal strange messages on the in-game chat box. An example of what you should expect to see is shown below.
If you are one of the few people to have received a capacitor, make sure to go find other players with the item and high-five them! Afterwards, post your unique code to the link to the official ARG list located here on Steam user xPaw's website. You can view the current submissions by clicking on this link. xPaw, the user who runs the website, is a good friend of ValveTime.net and helped both Omnomnick and -smash- in the organisation and solving of the previous TF2 Summer ARG which eventually ended up revealing the PyroMania update.
---Update #3---
The new ARG is almost complete. The ARG team recently unearthed a brand new Team Fortress 2 comic, focusing on the brothers Redmond, Blutarch and Gray Mann. We won't spoil anything, but it is definitely one of the best comics yet. The community also appears happy as this is significant proof to prove the existence of the upcoming 'Mann Vs Machine' rumored update. Some of the codes also compiled as QR codes, similar to last time. When scanned, the codes lead to an image with what appears to be a crafting recipe, with a certain somebody's knife stabbed through it. The list appeared as the most difficult and lengthy crafting recipe of any available. After 1 user crafted everything in this list together, a system-wide TF2 announcement was made alerting people that the new comic was available. The ARG is almost complete, so we'll be sure to update this post again as we learn more. Stay tuned.
---Update #4---
Keen eyed users have noticed the issue date on top of the Blood Brothers reads "17th August", which, strangely enough, is the same day a Valve-themed GTTV episode airs on Spike and Gametrailers.com. The episode airs at 1am on August 17th, and Gametrailers usually air a teaser for episodes on their website two or three days prior to the episode launch, so we'll be sure to let you know any hints the teaser may drop out. We'll also link the episode once it airs on Thursday night.
Valve has also officially referenced the ARG in a recent Team Fortress blog post, meaning we now believe it to be over, or at least for now. One loose threads includes the fact we still haven't cracked a ZIP folder related to the Soldier codes, and xPaw is still attempting to crack that file. On the in-game front, we still don't know what the Carrier Tanks' purposes are, or what the link between the four maps is.
Keep a keen eye out for more strange TF2 updates in the near future, we believe Mann Vs Machine is just around the corner.
