Team Fortress 2 is about to get its competitive matchmaking update

Team Fortress 2

The actual news here might be that — in this future year of 2015 — Team Fortress 2 still has players wandering around in server browsers and stumbling into random matches like cavemen, but Valve’s shooter finally appears to be on the verge of receiving a long anticipated update that introduces competitive matchmaking and ranked ladder games.

This could turn Team Fortress 2 on its head, which is hard to do in a game with so many hats.

A few lines of code referencing matchmaking have been found packed away inside the most recentGun Mettle update, suggesting that the update to enable all of this stuff is just around the corner.

Lines of script such as“In competitive games, you are automatically matched against players of similar skill rating”have been found over on Neogafand Facepunch, as well as references to a “competitive mode”, “matchmaking queue”, “ranked ladder games”, tournaments and “Competitive Matchmaking Beta Pass”.

Team Fortress 2 receiving this sort of matchmaking capability brings it more in line with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — and pretty much every other multiplayer shooter to have been released in this decade — and promises to be a shot in the arm for the game’s stagnating competitive scene.

Here’s the complete section of code, in case you’re interested.

// Ladder games
“TF_Ladder_NoClassChangeRound” “You can’t change classes after the game has started.”
“TF_Ladder_NoClassChangeReady” “You can’t change classes while you are READY.”
“TF_Ladder_NoTeamChange” “Teams are locked for this match.”

“MMenu_PlayComp” “Play Competitive”

“TF_Matchmaking_HeaderCompetitive” “Competitive”
“TF_Matchmaking_MissingTicket” “%s1 doesn’t have a ticket”
“TF_Matchmaking_MissingPass” “%s1 doesn’t have a Competitive Matchmaking Beta Pass”
“TF_Matchmaking_CompetitiveExplanation” “In competitive games, you are automatically matched against players of similar skill rating.\n\nTo invite friends before being matched, start a Party by clicking the button below.”
“TF_Matchmaking_StartSearchChat” “Press ‘Start Search’ to start a game.\n”
“TF_Matchmaking_InviteFriendsChat” “To play with friends, invite them to your party.\n”
“TF_Matchmaking_PlayerJoinedPartyChat” “%s1 joined the party\n”
“TF_Matchmaking_PlayerLeftPartyChat” “%s1 left the party\n”
“TF_Matchmaking_AddedToQueue” “Added to matchmaking queue.\n”
“TF_Matchmaking_RemovedFromQueue” “Removed from matchmaking queue.\n”

“TF_Competitive_Pass” “Competitive Matchmaking Beta Pass”
“TF_Competitive_Pass_Desc” “Present this pass in the Competitive Mode Beta to gain access to ranked ladder games.”
“TF_Competitive_RequiresPass_Title” “Beta Access Pass Required”
“TF_Competitive_RequiresPass” “To play in ranked competitive modes, you must own a Competitive Matchmaking Beta Pass.”
“TF_Competitive_Disconnect” “The match is over. Thanks for playing!”