TF2′s Second Annual Saxxy Awards Have Concluded!

December 2nd, 2012 · By Vic · 10 Comments

I have returned from the dead to ensure that each and every one of you gets to look at some of the greatest moving pictures I have seen this side of the Source Engine!

Back on the 1st of November, in the midst of TF2′s Fourth Annual Spectral Halloween Special, Valve announced that they were accepting submissions for the long-awaited Second Annual Saxxy Awards, and thanks to the wonders of the Source Filmmaker, many submissions were indeed produced and then sent in. One brief public voting period later, and the finalists and winners were revealed, as part of the live Saxxy ceremony, just a few days ago. Let’s run through all the winning videos, and their respective award categories.

First off, the winner in the Best Original Universe category was Elements: Teaser, a short but sweet teaser trailer for an upcoming episodic series. While the members of the Elements crew all got their Saxxy trophies, the Best Original Universe category was not showcased on the main awards page at all, as Valve thought it would be unfair, considering the small number of submissions created for that particular category. I can sort of see why (creating all-new art assets just for a 5-minute short is certainly a tough sell), but it’s still pretty disappointing!

Meanwhile, the winner in the Action category was Meet the Dumpster Diver, an action-packed short starring the Soldier, focusing on his very own community-made Dumpster Pack (part of which made it into the Pyromania Update, way back in late June). The action only starts up roughly one third into the video, but once it does, it’s not letting up until the very end! Good stuff.

The winner in the Replay category was EPIC High-Five Fail, a pretty hilarious but relatively meager submission, which is apparently causing some degree of controversy. I guess some people just don’t like Max Heads. Personally, I’m only worried about the possibility that people are actually going to start doing that in-game! After all, you know you can’t resist a high-five – you just can’t.

Moving on to the Comedy category, Wishmaker took the cake. It’s a really well-made short with great production values; and while it is pretty funny, it’s in a more insubstantial way, overall. Still, it’s a well deserved Saxxy in my book!

And lastly, Bad Medicine won in the Drama category, and it was up against some pretty solid competition, at that! With its poignant, rich visual direction; amazing soundtrack; as well as an intriguing, compelling narrative, I’d definitely qualify Bad Medicine as a masterpiece of machinima. Kudos to Zachariah Scott and his crew, for a job very well done!

However, the winner for the last, and most important category – Best Overall; has not yet been revealed. Instead, Valve plans to announce the winner live during GameTrailers’ Spike Video Game Awards pre-show, on the 7th of December – and the video in question will also be broadcast live, for the whole world to see.  And though it’s just 5 days away, I’m already dying to find out what it might be!

But of course, it simply wouldn’t be a Team Fortress event unless free cosmetic items were involved. And so, all players who participated in public Saxxy voting from the 15th of November to the 27th received the Saxxy Clapper Badge. In addition, all nominees/finalists in the Saxxies received the exclusive Memory Maker melee weapon. And of course, winners of the Saxxy Awards’ respective categories were awarded the prestigious Saxxy statuette melee weapon – so that next time you beat your friends to death, you can do them while they are reminded of your skill in the art of cinematography.

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