They're doing what looks like a dual soldier/demoman update (though it briefly looked like it was going to be *either* a demoman or soldier update, depending on the outcome of the contest), with an extra item unlock awarded to the class that wins the war.
The war is scored by, playing as one of the two involved classes, killing members of the other class. They're keeping a running tally, with daily updates. Soldier has maintained a 125k-200k point lead pretty consistently, total scores were up around 5 million last update.
The update has come with some fun comics each day. The first day, highlights (and officially introduces!) the Announcer (dubbed the Administrator), and reveals that she is, indeed, the same person running both teams and pitting them against each other. Her assistant (would that be an Administrative Assistant? I kill me) brings it to her attention that recent routine background checks on the mercenaries has revealed that Blue Soldier and Red Demoman have become friends outside of work. The Administrator is outraged at this conflict of interest and betrayal of her trust, and resolves to pit them against each other as punishment. Each are approached with offers of new probably illegal arms (rescued from Mann, Co., which was about to destroy them in order to cover up evidence!) in exchange for killing the other.
So far, the weapons that have been revealed are the melee kit for Demoman; consisting of the Eyelander, a Claymore to replace his bottle. It is haunted and "slow-forged for centuries in the bowels of English kings," and thus its cursed nature lowers maximum health when equipped, but will guarantee a decapitation with every killing blow. Each killing blow will also provide a boost in max health and speed. The Eyelander doesn't get normal crits, but does benefit from charging crits (see next). The second part of the melee kit is the Chargin' Targe, which solves an ancient Scottish riddle: that shields exist. It provides some mitigation for forcing the classic Scotsman to put down his second sword, and otherwise unconscionable act, because it can handily be used to charge at people and bludgeon them to death. The Chargin' Targe replaces the Sticky Launcher, and offers an alt-fire that launches you into a hurtling charge towards your foes. Melee strikes launched in the middle of a medium-length charge will get an automatic mini-crit, and strikes made from a long-distance charge will get a full crit. The Targe also offers 65% resistance to blast damage, and 50% (I think, not double checking the numbers) resistance to fire damage.
The soldier's revealed weaponry thus far is the Direct Hit, a rocket launcher which offers a 70% reduced splash radius in exchange for a projectile that's 80% faster and 25% more damaging, and guarantees mini-crits on airborne targets.
Finally, they've announced a crafting system that will allow you to make items you haven't discovered or unlocked yet from spares in your inventory, as well as teased us with the possibility to create *new* items that we haven't seen yet.
And I think that about covers it. Oh, free weekend this weekend, starting Thursday night.
_________________ "Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee "... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades
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