VSH makes a rocky official debut in Team Fortress 2

Valve just pulled the ultimate switcheroo

13 years after appearing as a fan-favorite community mod, VS Saxton Hale finally graduated into a real Team Fortress 2 game mode. Sadly, it wasn’t even 13 days before Valve yoinked it away from their big TF2 2023 summer update.

Though we don’t know exactly what triggered the removal, many players complained about the mode’s high instability. Very sad news, considering how VSH seemed to work just fine while in its community mode version. Things have gotten even rockier four days after the update. A few players claim VSH is back up, whereas others complain that the mode is constantly showing up only to vanish again. Either way, many complain they’re unable to enter matches.

What is Vs Saxton Hale?

To understand what VSH or Vs Saxton Hale is, it’s essential that we learn who Saxton Hale is. Though not originally in the game, Saxton Hale exists in the TF2 comics as a buff Australian weapons and hats dealer. Yes, that means that if you’ve ever spent money on any of Valve’s famous in-game hats, then congrats — you’ve helped fund this madman’s made-up empire.

As for VS Saxton Hale, the casual game mode itself, it’s an asymmetrical multiplayer battle mode.

At the beginning of the round, one of the players in the server will randomly spawn as Saxton. His mission? To end everyone else. The remaining players will have to join forces to try to take Saxton down. It’s not an easy battle, as Saxton is a powerful beast. Even though he only has two weapons, his left and right fists, he has a lot of HP and a bunch of special abilities that make him a tough target even against the combined efforts of eight godforsaken players.

Saxton can make use of:

• Sweeping charge: an ability that makes Saxton rush towards players to push them away. If the players end up hitting walls in result, they’ll take extra damage.
• Saxton Punch: This acts as Saxton’s ultra. It takes 30 seconds to charge up after he begins a round, but then he’ll be able to use a devastating punch that’ll damage every enemy in close proximity.
• Mighty Slam: a ground-pounding move that Saxton can perform when he’s in the air.
• Brave jump: oh yeah, we weren’t joking when he said that he can rain terror from above. Just like the scout, Saxton is somehow also able to perform a double jump that he can use to make the best possible use of his Mighty Slam move.

But Saxton isn’t the only one with abilities. The mercenaries also have, well, two abilities:

• Wall Climbing They can easily climb walls by melee attacking the ground as this will propel them into the air.
• Last Man Standing Once Saxton only has 3 mercenaries left to kill, they will get a damage boost. Once he only has one mercenary left to kill, he’ll get a huge damage boost.

Valve is hopefully working on the issue, since VSH is showing some signs of life in the casual queue. That could indicate some backend tinkering is taking place. Still, we don’t know when VS Saxton Hale will make a return in full swing.