Prepare to Meet the Pyro

It's [almost] time to Meet the Pyro!

You've met the Heavy. You've met the Scout. You've even met the Medic. You've met all the Team Fortress 2 crew, in fact, but one: the Pyro. But it appears that the long awaited moment is just about here, and that soon - actually, the word Valve used is "eventually" - we'll finally get to meet the man.

If he is a man, that is.

It's long been rumored that the world's favorite FPS firebug is in fact a member of the fairer sex and that we just haven't noticed because of the function-over-fashion outfit. I'm not aware of any actual evidence pointing to this conclusion, but Valve isn't going out of its way to cool the talk.

"Only two things are known for sure about the mysterious Pyro: he sets things on fire and he doesn't speak. In fact, only the part about setting things on fire is undisputed. Some believe his occasional rasping wheeze may be an attempt to communicate through a mouth obstructed by a filter and attached to lungs ravaged by constant exposure to his asbestos-lined suit," the Pyro class entry says. "Either way, he's a fearsome, inscrutable, on-fire Frankenstein of a man - if he even is a man."

Interesting! Valve has a few other things in the works for 2012 as well, including a top-secret TF2 project that is neither a hat nor a map [but possibly an ungodly hat-map hybrid], a Steam Workshop blog and the second annual Saxxy Awards. Read all about it at teamfortress.com!

Thanks to The_root_of_all_evil for the tip.